I was trying not to mention backtracking. Which, of course, means that yours is 'righter' than mine, in a theoretical sense.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Wall admits avoiding backtracking, noting that his version is theoretically more correct.
- In plain terms
- He skips backtracking, making his approach theoretically stronger.
- What can you take from it?
- Sometimes a simpler algorithm can be more theoretically sound.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- When does theoretical superiority outweigh practical speed?
Another view
Practical performance may still favor backtracking.
More from Larry Wall
'Course, that doesn't work when 'a' contains parentheses.
Permalink to quote #146 Not that I'm against sneaking some notions into people's heads upon occasion. (Or blasting them in outright.)
Permalink to quote #148 That gets us out of deciding how to spell Reg[eE]xp?|RE . . . Of course, then we have to decide what ref $re returns... :-)
Permalink to quote #145
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