If you remove stricture from a large Perl program currently, you're just installing delayed bugs, whereas with this feature, you're installing an instant bug that's easily fixed. Whoopee.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Removing constraints from a large Perl program adds hidden bugs, while a new feature adds an immediate, easy‑to‑fix bug.
- In plain terms
- Dropping rules creates delayed bugs; a new feature creates a quick bug.
- What can you take from it?
- Prefer immediate, fixable issues over hidden, delayed ones.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How can teams balance quick fixes with long‑term stability?
Another view
The tone is sarcastic, which may obscure the practical advice.
More from Larry Wall
Anyway, my money is still on use strict vars . . .
Permalink to quote #131 I don't think it's worth washing hogs over.
Permalink to quote #133 I surely do hope that's a syntax error.
Permalink to quote #130
Related quotes
Perl is another example of filling a tiny, short-term need, and then being a real problem in the longer term. Basically, a lot of the problems that computing h…
Alan KayAlan Kay quote #8 Is it possible that software is not like anything else, that it is meant to be discarded: that the whole point is to always see it as a soap bubble?
Alan PerlisAlan Perlis quote #15 The worst programs are the ones where the programmers doing the original work don't lay a solid foundation, and then they're not involved in the program in the…
Bill GatesBill Gates quote #42