Does the same as the system call of that name. If you don't know what it does, don't worry about it.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- If you don't know what a system call does, you can ignore it for now.
- In plain terms
- Unknown calls need not be understood immediately.
- What can you take from it?
- Focus on what you need, not every detail.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- When is it safe to defer understanding?
- How do you mitigate risk?
Another view
Ignoring unknown behavior can lead to bugs.
More from Larry Wall
Be consistent.
Permalink to quote #265 Even if you aren't in doubt, consider the mental welfare of the person who has to maintain the code after you, and who will probably put parens in the wrong pl…
Permalink to quote #267 /* This bit of chicanery makes a unary function followed by a parenthesis into a function with one argument, highest precedence. */
Permalink to quote #264
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