Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
C excels at manipulating complex things (manipulexity), while shell excels at quickly assembling things (whipuptitude).
In plain terms
C handles complexity; shell handles rapid assembly.
What can you take from it?
Choose C for deep control, shell for quick tasks.

Where it applies

  • system programming
  • scripting

Putting it to work

  • use C for performance‑critical code
  • use shell for automation

Questions to consider

  • When should you favor one language over another?

Another view

These labels are informal and not rigorous.

More from Larry Wall

  1. But I'm not here to talk about postmodernism. I tried to do that last spring, and afterwards I was thoroughly deconstructed by the deconstructionists for attem…

    Permalink to quote #277
  2. So... Perhaps the Perl 6 slogan should be 'All Your Paradigms Are Belong To Us'. We'll get to that.

    Permalink to quote #279
  3. When in doubt, parenthesize. At the very least it will let some poor schmuck bounce on the % key in vi.

    Permalink to quote #276

Related quotes

  1. Anybody want a binary telemetry frame editor written in Perl?

    Larry WallLarry Wall quote #93
  2. I simultaneously believe that languages are wonderful and awful. You have to hold both of those. Ugly things can be beautiful. And beautiful can get ugly very …

    Larry WallLarry Wall quote #280
  3. You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies, You may trod me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I'll rise.

    Maya AngelouMaya Angelou quote #1