save one identity call for non-converting fns

 - playing round with the code, thought it would't be so terrible to
   remove the unneeded identity call. Save you a couple nanoseconds ;)
 - also messed around with a little stylistic things that you may or may
   not actually like, which I'm too lazy to separate out into a separate
   commit.  Let me know if you dislike them and I can remove them from this commit.