All language designers are arrogant.  Goes with the territory... :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <1991Jul13.010945.19157@netlabs.com
%%
Although the Perl Slogan is There's More Than One Way to Do It, I hesitate
to make 10 ways to do something.  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <9695@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
%%
And don't tell me there isn't one bit of difference between null and space,
because that's exactly how much difference there is.  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <10209@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
%%
"And I don't like doing silly things (except on purpose)."
             -- Larry Wall in <1992Jul3.191825.14435@netlabs.com>
%%
:        And it goes against the grain of building small tools.
Innocent, Your Honor.  Perl users build small tools all day long.
             -- Larry Wall in <1992Aug26.184221.29627@netlabs.com>
%%
/* And you'll never guess what the dog had */
/*   in its mouth... */
             -- Larry Wall in stab.c from the perl source code
%%
Because . doesn't match \n.  [\0-\377] is the most efficient way to match
everything currently.  Maybe \e should match everything.  And \E would
of course match nothing.   :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <9847@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
%%
Be consistent.
             -- Larry Wall in the perl man page
%%
Besides, including <std_ice_cubes.h> is a fatal error on machines that
don't have it yet.  Bad language design, there...  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <1991Aug22.220929.6857@netlabs.com>
%%
Besides, it's good to force C programmers to use the toolbox occasionally.  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <1991May31.181659.28817@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov>
%%
Besides, REAL computers have a rename() system call.    :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <7937@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
%%
break;                          /* don't do magic till later */
             -- Larry Wall in stab.c from the perl source code
%%
But you have to allow a little for the desire to evangelize when you
think you have good news.
             -- Larry Wall in <1992Aug26.184221.29627@netlabs.com>
%%
Chip Salzenberg sent me a complete patch to add System V IPC (msg, sem and
shm calls), so I added them.  If that bothers you, you can always undefine
them in config.sh.  :-) -- Larry Wall in <9384@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
%%
/* dbmrefcnt--;  */     /* doesn't work, rats */
             -- Larry Wall in hash.c from the perl source code
%%
#define NULL 0           /* silly thing is, we don't even use this */
             -- Larry Wall in perl.c from the perl source code
%%
#define SIGILL 6         /* blech */
             -- Larry Wall in perl.c from the perl source code
%%
Does the same as the system call of that name.
If you don't know what it does, don't worry about it.
             -- Larry Wall in the perl man page regarding chroot(2)
%%
double value;                /* or your money back! */
short changed;               /* so triple your money back! */
             -- Larry Wall in cons.c from the perl source code
%%
Down that path lies madness.  On the other hand, the road to hell is
paved with melting snowballs.
             -- Larry Wall in <1992Jul2.222039.26476@netlabs.com>
%%
echo "Congratulations.  You aren't running Eunice."
             -- Larry Wall in Configure from the perl distribution
%%
echo "Hmmm...you don't have Berkeley networking in libc.a..."
echo "but the Wollongong group seems to have hacked it in."
             -- Larry Wall in Configure from the perl distribution
%%
echo "ICK, NOTHING WORKED!!!  You may have to diddle the includes.";;
             -- Larry Wall in Configure from the perl distribution
%%
echo $package has manual pages available in source form.
echo "However, you don't have nroff, so they're probably useless to you."
             -- Larry Wall in Configure from the perl distribution
%%
echo "Your stdio isn't very std."
             -- Larry Wall in Configure from the perl distribution
%%
#else /* !STDSTDIO */     /* The big, slow, and stupid way */
             -- Larry Wall in str.c from the perl source code
%%
[End of diatribe.  We now return you to your regularly scheduled
programming...]
             -- Larry Wall in Configure from the perl distribution
%%
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 place.  -- Larry Wall in the perl man page
%%
"Help save the world!"              -- Larry Wall in README
%%
Hey, I had to let awk be better at *something*...  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <1991Nov7.200504.25280@netlabs.com>1
%%
I already have too much problem with people thinking the efficiency of
a perl construct is related to its length.  On the other hand, I'm
perfectly capable of changing my mind next week...  :-) --lwall
%%
I don't know if it's what you want, but it's what you get.  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <10502@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
%%
I dunno, I dream in Perl sometimes...
             -- Larry Wall in  <8538@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
%%
If I allowed "next $label" then I'd also have to allow "goto $label",
and I don't think you really want that...  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <1991Mar11.230002.27271@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov>
%%
If I don't document something, it's usually either for a good reason,
or a bad reason.  In this case it's a good reason.  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <1992Jan17.005405.16806@netlabs.com>
%%
"I find this a nice feature but it is not according to the documentation.
Or is it a BUG?"
"Let's call it an accidental feature. :-)"
             -- Larry Wall in <6909@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
%%
if (instr(buf,sys_errlist[errno]))  /* you don't see this */
             -- Larry Wall in eval.c from the perl source code
%%
if (rsfp = mypopen("/bin/mail root","w")) {     /* heh, heh */
             -- Larry Wall in perl.c from the perl source code
%%
If you consistently take an antagonistic approach, however, people are
going to start thinking you're from New York.   :-)
             -- Larry Wall to Dan Bernstein in <10187@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
%%
If you want to program in C, program in C.  It's a nice language.  I
use it occasionally...   :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <7577@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
%%
If you want to see useful Perl examples, we can certainly arrange to have
comp.lang.misc flooded with them, but I don't think that would help the
advance of civilization.  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <1992Mar5.180926.19041@netlabs.com>
%%
If you want your program to be readable, consider supplying the argument.
             -- Larry Wall in the perl man page
%%
I know it's weird, but it does make it easier to write poetry in perl.    :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <7865@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
%%
I'll say it again for the logic impaired.
             -- Larry Wall
%%
I might be able to shoehorn a reference count in on top of the numeric
value by disallowing multiple references on scalars with a numeric value,
but it wouldn't be as clean.  I do occasionally worry about that. --lwall
%%
I'm sure that that could be indented more readably, but I'm scared of
the awk parser.
             -- Larry Wall in <6849@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
%%
In general, if you think something isn't in Perl, try it out, because it
usually is.  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <1991Jul31.174523.9447@netlabs.com>
%%
In general, they do what you want, unless you want consistency.
             -- Larry Wall in the perl man page
%%
Interestingly enough, since subroutine declarations can come anywhere,
you wouldn't have to put BEGIN {} at the beginning, nor END {} at the
end.  Interesting, no?  I wonder if Henry would like it. :-) --lwall
%%
I think it's a new feature.  Don't tell anyone it was an accident.  :-)
         -- Larry Wall on s/foo/bar/eieio in <10911@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
%%
"It is easier to port a shell than a shell script."
             -- Larry Wall
%%
It is, of course, written in Perl.  Translation to C is left as an
exercise for the reader.  :-)  -- Larry Wall in <7448@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
%%
It's all magic.  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <7282@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
%%
It's documented in The Book, somewhere...
             -- Larry Wall in <10502@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
%%
> (It's sorta like sed, but not.  It's sorta like awk, but not.  etc.)
Guilty as charged.  Perl is happily ugly, and happily derivative.
             -- Larry Wall in <1992Aug26.184221.29627@netlabs.com>
%%
It's there as a sop to former Ada programmers.  :-)
     -- Larry Wall regarding 10_000_000 in <11556@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
%%
It won't be covered in the book.  The source code has to be useful for
something, after all...  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <10160@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
%%
:  I've heard that there is a shell (bourne or csh) to perl filter, does
:  anyone know of this or where I can get it?
Yeah, you filter it through Tom Christiansen.  :-)  -- Larry Wall
%%
:       I've tried (in vi) "g/[a-z]\n[a-z]/s//_/"...but that doesn't
: cut it.  Any ideas?  (I take it that it may be a two-pass sort of solution).
In the first pass, install perl. :-)
             -- Larry Wall <6849@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
%%
I won't mention any names, because I don't want to get sun4's into
trouble...  :-)     -- Larry Wall in <11333@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
%%
Just don't compare it with a real language, or you'll be unhappy...  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <1992May12.190238.5667@netlabs.com>
%%
Just don't create a file called -rf.  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <11393@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
%%
last|perl -pe '$_ x=/(..:..)...(.*)/&&"'$1'"ge$1&&"'$1'"lt$2'
That's gonna be tough for Randal to beat...  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in  <1991Apr29.072206.5621@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov>
%%
Let's say the docs present a simplified view of reality...    :-)
             -- Larry Wall in  <6940@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
%%
Let us be charitable, and call it a misleading feature  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <2609@jato.Jpl.Nasa.Gov>
%%
Lispers are among the best grads of the Sweep-It-Under-Someone-Else's-Carpet
School of Simulated Simplicity.  [Was that sufficiently incendiary?  :-)]
             -- Larry Wall in <1992Jan10.201804.11926@netlabs.com
%%
No, I'm not going to explain it.  If you can't figure it out, you didn't
want to know anyway...  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <1991Aug7.180856.2854@netlabs.com>
%%
/* now make a new head in the exact same spot */
             -- Larry Wall in cons.c from the perl source code
%%
OK, enough hype.
             -- Larry Wall in the perl man page
%%
OOPS!  You naughty creature!  You didn't run Configure with sh!
I will attempt to remedy the situation by running sh for you...
             -- Larry Wall in Configure from the perl distribution
%%
Perl is designed to give you several ways to do anything, so
consider picking the most readable one.
             -- Larry Wall in the perl man page
%%
Perl itself is usually pretty good about telling you what you shouldn't
do. :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <11091@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
%%
Perl programming is an *empirical* science!
             -- Larry Wall in <10226@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
%%
pos += screamnext[pos]  /* does this goof up anywhere? */
             -- Larry Wall in util.c from the perl source code
%%
Q. Why is this so clumsy?
A. The trick is to use Perl's strengths rather than its weaknesses.
             -- Larry Wall in <8225@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
%%
Randal said it would be tough to do in sed.  He didn't say he didn't
understand sed.  Randal understands sed quite well.  Which is why he
uses Perl.   :-)  -- Larry Wall in <7874@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
%%
Real programmers can write assembly code in any language.   :-)
             -- Larry Wall in  <8571@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
%%
Remember though that
THERE IS NO GENERAL RULE FOR CONVERTING A LIST INTO A SCALAR.
             -- Larry Wall in the perl man page
%%
s = (char*)(long)retval;                /* ouch */
             -- Larry Wall in doio.c from the perl source code
%%
signal(i, SIG_DFL); /* crunch, crunch, crunch */
             -- Larry Wall in doarg.c from the perl source code
%%
Sorry.  My testing organization is either too small, or too large, depending
on how you look at it.  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <1991Apr22.175438.8564@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov>
%%
stab_val(stab)->str_nok = 1;    /* what a wonderful hack! */
             -- Larry Wall in stab.c from the perl source code
%%
str->str_pok |= SP_FBM;                     /* deep magic */
s = (unsigned char*)(str->str_ptr);         /* deeper magic */
             -- Larry Wall in util.c from the perl source code
%%
Tactical?  TACTICAL!?!?  Hey, buddy, we went from kilotons to megatons
several minutes ago.  We don't need no stinkin' tactical nukes.
(By the way, do you have change for 10 million people?) --lwall
%%
That means I'll have to use $ans to suppress newlines now.
Life is ridiculous.
             -- Larry Wall in Configure from the perl distribution
%%
The autodecrement is not magical.
             -- Larry Wall in the perl man page
%%
The only disadvantage I see is that it would force everyone to get Perl.
Horrors.  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in  <8854@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
%%
*** The previous line contains the naughty word "$&".\n
if /(ibm|apple|awk)/;      # :-)
             -- Larry Wall in the perl man page
%%
There ain't nothin' in this world that's worth being a snot over.
             -- Larry Wall in <1992Aug19.041614.6963@netlabs.com>
%%
There are many times when you want it to ignore the rest of the string just
like atof() does.  Oddly enough, Perl calls atof().  How convenient.  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <1991Jun24.231628.14446@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov>
%%
There are probably better ways to do that, but it would make the parser
more complex.  I do, occasionally, struggle feebly against complexity...  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <7886@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
%%
There are still some other things to do, so don't think if I didn't fix
your favorite bug that your bug report is in the bit bucket.  (It may be,
but don't think it.  :-)  Larry Wall in <7238@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
%%
There is, however, a strange, musty smell in the air that reminds me of
something...hmm...yes...I've got it...there's a VMS nearby, or I'm a Blit.
             -- Larry Wall in Configure from the perl distribution
%%
"The road to hell is paved with melting snowballs."
             -- Larry Wall in  <1992Jul2.222039.26476@netlabs.com>
%%
/* This bit of chicanery makes a unary function followed by
a parenthesis into a function with one argument, highest precedence. */
             -- Larry Wall in toke.c from the perl source code
%%
"...this does not mean that some of us should not want, in a rather
dispassionate sort of way, to put a bullet through csh's head."
Larry Wall in <1992Aug6.221512.5963@netlabs.com>
%%
> This made me wonder, suddenly: can telnet be written in perl?
Of course it can be written in Perl.  Now if you'd said nroff,
that would be more challenging...   -- Larry Wall
%%
Though I'll admit readability suffers slightly...
             -- Larry Wall in <2969@jato.Jpl.Nasa.Gov>
%%
tmps_base = tmps_max;                /* protect our mortal string */
             -- Larry Wall in stab.c from the perl source code
%%
Unix is like a toll road on which you have to stop every 50 feet to
pay another nickel.  But hey!  You only feel 5 cents poorer each time.
             -- Larry Wall in <1992Aug13.192357.15731@netlabs.com>
%%
"We all agree on the necessity of compromise.  We just can't agree on
when it's necessary to compromise."
             -- Larry Wall in  <1991Nov13.194420.28091@netlabs.com>
%%
/* we have tried to make this normal case as abnormal as possible */
             -- Larry Wall in cmd.c from the perl source code
%%
What about WRITING it first and rationalizing it afterwords?  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <8162@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
%%
: 1.  What is the possibility of this being added in the future?
In the near future, the probability is close to zero.  In the distant
future, I'll be dead, and posterity can do whatever they like...  :-) --lwall
%%
"What is the sound of Perl?  Is it not the sound of a wall that
people have stopped banging their heads against?"
             -- Larry Wall in <1992Aug26.184221.29627@netlabs.com>
%%
When in doubt, parenthesize.  At the very least it will let some
poor schmuck bounce on the % key in vi.
             -- Larry Wall in the perl man page
%%
"You can't have filenames longer than 14 chars.
You can't even think about them!"
             -- Larry Wall in Configure from the perl distribution
%%
You have to admit that it's difficult to misplace the Perl sources.  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <1992Aug26.184221.29627@netlabs.com>
%%
Your csh still thinks true is false.  Write to your vendor today and tell
them that next year Configure ought to "rm /bin/csh" unless they fix their
blasted shell. :-)   -- Larry Wall in Configure from the perl distribution
%%
You want it in one line?  Does it have to fit in 80 columns?   :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <7349@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
%%
Well, enough clowning around.  Perl is, in intent, a cleaned up and
summarized version of that wonderful semi-natural language known as
"Unix".
             -- Larry Wall in <1994Apr6.184419.3687@netlabs.com>
%%
Anyway, there's plenty of room for doubt.  It might seem easy enough,
but computer language design is just like a stroll in the park.

Jurassic Park, that is.
             -- Larry Wall in <1994Jun15.074039.2654@netlabs.com>
%%
I want to see people using Perl to glue things together creatively, not
just technically but also socially.
             -- Larry Wall in <199702111730.JAA28598@wall.org>
%%
The whole history of computers is rampant with cheerleading at best and
bigotry at worst.
             -- Larry Wall in <199702111730.JAA28598@wall.org>
%%
If someone stinks, view it as a reason to help them, not a reason to
avoid them.
             -- Larry Wall in <199702111730.JAA28598@wall.org>
%%
As usual, I'm overstating the case to knock a few neurons loose, but the
truth is usually somewhere in the muddle, uh, middle.
             -- Larry Wall in <199702111639.IAA28425@wall.org>
%%
Odd that we think definitions are definitive.   :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199702221943.LAA20388@wall.org>
%%
: But for some things, Perl just isn't the optimal choice.

(yet)   :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199702221943.LAA20388@wall.org>
%%
I don't like this official/unofficial distinction.  It sound, er, officious.
             -- Larry Wall in <199702221943.LAA20388@wall.org>
%%
If you write something wrong enough, I'll be glad to make up a new
witticism just for you.
             -- Larry Wall in <199702221943.LAA20388@wall.org>
%%
So far we've managed to avoid turning Perl into APL.  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199702251904.LAA28261@wall.org>
%%
Not that I have anything much against redundancy.  But I said that already.
             -- Larry Wall in <199702271735.JAA04048@wall.org>
%%
They can always run stderr through uniq.  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199704012331.PAA16535@wall.org>
%%
I'd put my money where my mouth is, but my mouth keeps moving.
             -- Larry Wall in <199704051723.JAA28035@wall.org>
%%
Of course, I reserve the right to make wholly stupid changes to Perl
if I think they improve the language.  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199704251604.JAA27300@wall.org>
%%
Call me bored, but don't call me boring.
             -- Larry Wall in <199705101952.MAA00756@wall.org>
%%
I think $[ is more like a coelacanth than a mastadon.
             -- Larry Wall in <199705101952.MAA00756@wall.org>
%%
We question most of the mantras around here periodically, in case
you hadn't noticed.  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199705101952.MAA00756@wall.org>
%%
(Presuming for the sake of argument that it's even *possible* to design
better code in Perl than in C.  :-)
    -- Larry Wall on core code vs. module code design
%%
That could certainly be done, but I don't want to fall into the Forth
trap, where every running Forth implementation is really a different
language.
             -- Larry Wall in <199705101952.MAA00756@wall.org>
%%
Tcl long ago fell into the Forth trap, and is now trying desperately to
extricate itself (with some help from Sun's marketing department).
             -- Larry Wall in <199705101952.MAA00756@wall.org>
%%
The whole intent of Perl 5's module system was to encourage the growth
of Perl culture rather than the Perl core.
             -- Larry Wall in <199705101952.MAA00756@wall.org>
%%
Randal can write one-liners again.  Everyone is happy, and peace spreads
over the whole Earth.
             -- Larry Wall in <199705101952.MAA00756@wall.org>
%%
Life gets boring, someone invents another necessity, and once again we
turn the crank on the screwjack of progress hoping that nobody gets
screwed.
             -- Larry Wall in <199705101952.MAA00756@wall.org>
%%
No prisoner's dilemma here.  Over the long term, symbiosis is more
useful than parasitism.  More fun, too.  Ask any mitochondria.
             -- Larry Wall in <199705102042.NAA00851@wall.org>
%%
Obviously I was either onto something, or on something.
             -- Larry Wall on the creation of Perl
%%
It's the Magic that counts.
             -- Larry Wall on Perl's apparent ugliness
%%
May you do Good Magic with Perl.
             -- Larry Wall's blessing
%%
P.S. Perl's master plan (or what passes for one) is to take over the
world like English did.  Er, *as* English did...
             -- Larry Wall in <199705201832.LAA28393@wall.org>
%%
You can prove anything by mentioning another computer language.  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199706242038.NAA29853@wall.org>
%%
I think you didn't get a reply because you used the terms "correct" and
"proper", neither of which has much meaning in Perl culture.  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199706251602.JAA01786@wall.org>
%%
I'm sure a mathematician would claim that 0 and 1 are both very
interesting numbers.  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199707300650.XAA05515@wall.org>
%%
True, it returns "" for false, but "" is an even more interesting
number than 0.
             -- Larry Wall in <199707300650.XAA05515@wall.org>
%%
Any false value is gonna be fairly boring in Perl, mathematicians
notwithstanding.
             -- Larry Wall in <199707300650.XAA05515@wall.org>
%%
We didn't put in ^^ because then we'd have to keep telling people what
it means, and then we'd have to keep telling them why it doesn't short
circuit.  :-/
             -- Larry Wall in <199707300650.XAA05515@wall.org>
%%
Anybody want a binary telemetry frame editor written in Perl?
             -- Larry Wall in <199708012226.PAA22015@wall.org>
%%
Perhaps I'm missing the gene for making enemies.  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199708040319.UAA16213@wall.org>
%%
Perl has a long tradition of working around compilers.
             -- Larry Wall in <199708252256.PAA00105@wall.org>
%%
Personally, I like to defiantly split my infinitives.  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199708271551.IAA10211@wall.org>
%%
Real theology is always rather shocking to people who already
think they know what they think.  I'm still shocked myself.  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199708261932.MAA05218@wall.org>
%%
The computer should be doing the hard work.  That's what it's paid to do,
after all.
             -- Larry Wall in <199709012312.QAA08121@wall.org>
%%
The following two statements are usually both true:
	There's not enough documentation.
	There's too much documentation.
             -- Larry Wall in <199709020026.RAA08431@wall.org>
%%
Of course, this being Perl, we could always take both approaches.  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199709021744.KAA12428@wall.org>
%%
The random quantum fluctuations of my brain are historical accidents that
happen to have decided that the concepts of dynamic scoping and lexical
scoping are orthogonal and should remain that way.
             -- Larry Wall in <199709021854.LAA12794@wall.org>
%%
At many levels, Perl is a "diagonal" language.
             -- Larry Wall in <199709021854.LAA12794@wall.org>
%%
I'm serious about thinking through all the possibilities before we
settle on anything.  All things have the advantages of their
disadvantages, and vice versa.
             -- Larry Wall in <199709032332.QAA21669@wall.org>
%%
Part of language design is purturbing the proposed feature in various
directions to see how it might generalize in the future.
             -- Larry Wall in <199709032332.QAA21669@wall.org>
%%
Sometimes we choose the generalization.  Sometimes we don't.
             -- Larry Wall in <199709032332.QAA21669@wall.org>
%%
I wouldn't ever write the full sentence myself, but then, I never use
goto either.
             -- Larry Wall in <199709032332.QAA21669@wall.org>
%%
It's appositival, if it's there.  And it doesn't have to be there.
And it's really obvious that it's there when it's there.
             -- Larry Wall in <199709032332.QAA21669@wall.org>
%%
Oh, get ahold of yourself.  Nobody's proposing that we parse English.
             -- Larry Wall in <199709032332.QAA21669@wall.org>
%%
As with all the other proposals, it's basically just a list of words.
You can deal with that... :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199709032332.QAA21669@wall.org>
%%
I hope I'm not getting so famous that I can't think out load [sic] anymore.
             -- Larry Wall in <199709032332.QAA21669@wall.org>
%%
It would be possible to optimize some forms of goto, but I haven't
bothered.
             -- Larry Wall in <199709041935.MAA27136@wall.org>
%%
A "goto" in Perl falls into the category of hard things that should be
possible, not easy things that should be easy.
             -- Larry Wall in <199709041935.MAA27136@wall.org>
%%
How do Crays and Alphas handle the POSIX problem?
             -- Larry Wall in <199709050042.RAA29379@wall.org>
%%
Well, that's more-or-less what I was saying, though obviously addition
is a little more cosmic than the bitwise operators.
             -- Larry Wall in <199709051808.LAA01780@wall.org>
%%
You tell it that it's indicative by appending $!.  That's why we made $!
such a short variable name, after all.  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199709081801.LAA20629@wall.org>
%%
The choice of approaches could be made the responsibility of the
programmer.
             -- Larry Wall in <199709081901.MAA20863@wall.org>
%%
As someone pointed out, you could have an attribute that says "optimize
the heck out of this routine", and your definition of heck would be a
parameter to the optimizer.
             -- Larry Wall in <199709081854.LAA20830@wall.org>
%%
If you're going to define a shortcut, then make it the base [sic] darn
shortcut you can.
             -- Larry Wall in <199709241628.JAA08908@wall.org>
%%
It is my job in life to travel all roads, so that some may take the road
less travelled, and others the road more travelled, and all have a
pleasant day.
             -- Larry Wall in <199709241628.JAA08908@wall.org>
%%
It's getting harder and harder to think out loud.  One of these days
someone's gonna go off and kill Thomas a'Becket for me...
             -- Larry Wall in <199709242015.NAA10312@wall.org>
%%
I was about to say, "Avoid fame like the plague," but you know, they can
cure the plague with penicillin these days.
             -- Larry Wall in <199709242015.NAA10312@wall.org>
%%
But the possibility of abuse may be a good reason for leaving
capabilities out of other computer languages, it's not a good reason for
leaving capabilities out of Perl.
             -- Larry Wall in <199709251614.JAA15718@wall.org>
%%
Oh, wait, that was Randal...nevermind...
             -- Larry Wall in <199709261754.KAA23761@wall.org>
%%
P.S.  I suppose I really should be nicer to people today, considering
I'll be singing in Billy Graham's choir tonight...   :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199709261754.KAA23761@wall.org>
%%
Magically turning people's old scalar contexts into list contexts is a
recipe for several kinds of disaster.
             -- Larry Wall in <199709291631.JAA08648@wall.org>
%%
And we can always supply them with a program that makes identical files
into links to a single file.
             -- Larry Wall in <199709292012.NAA09616@wall.org>
%%
I wasn't recommending that we make the links for them, only provide them
with the tools to do so if they want to take the gamble (or the gambol).
             -- Larry Wall in <199709292259.PAA10407@wall.org>
%%
This has been planned for some time.  I guess we'll just have to find
someone with an exceptionally round tuit.
             -- Larry Wall in <199709302338.QAA17037@wall.org>
%%
    switch (ref $@) {
    OverflowError =>
	warn "Dam needs to be drained";
    DomainError =>
	warn "King needs to be trained";
    NuclearWarError =>
	die;
    }
             -- Larry Wall in <199709302338.QAA17037@wall.org>
%%
I surely do hope that's a syntax error.
             -- Larry Wall in <199710011752.KAA21624@wall.org>
%%
Anyway, my money is still on use strict vars . . .
             -- Larry Wall in <199710011704.KAA21395@wall.org>
%%
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.
             -- Larry Wall in <199710050130.SAA04762@wall.org>
%%
I don't think it's worth washing hogs over.
             -- Larry Wall in <199710060253.TAA09723@wall.org>
%%
It's certainly easy to calculate the average attendance for Perl
conferences.
             -- Larry Wall in <199710071721.KAA19014@wall.org>
%%
Tcl tends to get ported to weird places like routers.
             -- Larry Wall in <199710071721.KAA19014@wall.org>
%%
Historically Tcl has always stored all intermediate results as strings.
(With 8.0 they're rethinking that.  Of course, Perl rethought that from
the start.)
             -- Larry Wall in <199710071721.KAA19014@wall.org>
%%
I knew I'd hate COBOL the moment I saw they'd used "perform" instead of
"do".
             -- Larry Wall on a not-so-popular programming language
%%
Just don't make the '9' format pack/unpack numbers...  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199710091434.HAA00838@wall.org>
%%
I think that's easier to read.  Pardon me.  Less difficult to read.
             -- Larry Wall in <199710120226.TAA06867@wall.org>
%%
To ordinary folks, conversion is not always automatic.  It's something
that may or may not require explicit assistance.  See Billy Graham.  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199710141738.KAA22289@wall.org>
%%
Well, you can implement a Perl peek() with unpack('P',...).  Once you
have that, there's only security through obscurity.  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199710161537.IAA07828@wall.org>
%%
It may be possible to get this condition from within Perl if a signal
handler runs at just the wrong moment.  Another point for Chip...  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199710161546.IAA07885@wall.org>
%%
As pointed out in a followup, Real Perl Programmers prefer things to be
visually distinct.
             -- Larry Wall in <199710161841.LAA13208@wall.org>
%%
The Harvard Law states:  Under controlled conditions of light, temperature,
humidity, and nutrition, the organism will do as it damn well pleases.
             -- Larry Wall in <199710161841.LAA13208@wall.org>
%%
That should probably be written:
    no !@#$%^&*:@!semicolon
             -- Larry Wall in <199710161841.LAA13208@wall.org>
%%
That gets us out of deciding how to spell Reg[eE]xp?|RE . . .
Of course, then we have to decide what ref $re returns...  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199710171838.LAA24968@wall.org>
%%
'Course, that doesn't work when 'a' contains parentheses.
             -- Larry Wall in <199710211647.JAA17957@wall.org>
%%
I was trying not to mention backtracking.  Which, of course, means that
yours is "righter" than mine, in a theoretical sense.
             -- Larry Wall in <199710211624.JAA17833@wall.org>
%%
Not that I'm against sneaking some notions into people's heads upon
occasion.  (Or blasting them in outright.)
             -- Larry Wall in <199710211624.JAA17833@wall.org>
%%
(To the extent that anyone but a Prolog programmer can understand \X totally.
(And to the extent that a Prolog programmer can understand "cut". :-))
             -- Larry Wall in <199710211624.JAA17833@wall.org>
%%
Wow, I'm being shot at from both sides.  That means I *must* be right.  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199710211959.MAA18990@wall.org>
%%
You don't have to wait--you can have it in 5.004_54 or so.  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199710221740.KAA24455@wall.org>
%%
There's something to be said for returning the whole syntax tree.
             -- Larry Wall in <199710221833.LAA24741@wall.org>
%%
It's not really a rule--it's more like a trend.
             -- Larry Wall in <199710221721.KAA24321@wall.org>
%%
Double *sigh*.  _04 is going onto thousands of CDs even as we speak,
so to speak.
             -- Larry Wall in <199710221718.KAA24299@wall.org>
%%
The code also assumes that it's difficult to misspell "a" or "b".  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199710221731.KAA24396@wall.org>
%%
Well, hey, let's just make everything into a closure, and then we'll
have our general garbage collector, installed by "use less memory".
             -- Larry Wall in <199710221744.KAA24484@wall.org>
%%
People who understand context would be steamed to have someone else
dictating how they can call it.
             -- Larry Wall in <199710221710.KAA24242@wall.org>
%%
For the sake of argument I'll ignore all your fighting words.
             -- Larry Wall in <199710221710.KAA24242@wall.org>
%%
Think of prototypes as a funny markup language--the interpretation is
left up to the rendering engine.
             -- Larry Wall in <199710221710.KAA24242@wall.org>
%%
The way these things go, there are probably 6 or 8 kludgey ways to do
it, and a better way that involves rethinking something that hasn't
been rethunk yet.
             -- Larry Wall in <199710221859.LAA24889@wall.org>
%%
Beauty?  What's that?
             -- Larry Wall in <199710221937.MAA25131@wall.org>
%%
I'm afraid my gut level reaction is basically, "'proceed' is cute, but
cute doesn't cut it in the emergency room."
             -- Larry Wall in <199710281816.KAA29614@wall.org>
%%
I suppose one could claim that an undocumented feature has no
semantics.  :-(
             -- Larry Wall in <199710290036.QAA01818@wall.org>
%%
Yes, we have consensus that we need 64 bit support.  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199710291922.LAA07101@wall.org>
%%
:  - cut in regexps

I don't think we reached consensus on that.  We're still backtracking...
             -- Larry Wall in <199710291922.LAA07101@wall.org>
%%
Boss:   You forgot to assign the result of your map!
Hacker: Dang, I'm always forgetting my assignations...
Boss:   And what's that "goto" doing there?!?
Hacker: Er, I guess my finger slipped when I was typing "getservbyport"...
Boss:   Ah well, accidents will happen.  Maybe we should have picked APL.
             -- Larry Wall in <199710311732.JAA19169@wall.org>
%%
Perhaps they will have to outlaw sending random lists of words.  fee fie
foe foo
             -- Larry Wall in <199710311916.LAA19760@wall.org>
%%
Hey, if pi == 3, and three == 0, does that make pi == 0?  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199711011926.LAA25557@wall.org>
%%
(Never thought I'd be telling Malcolm and Ilya the same thing... :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199711071819.KAA29909@wall.org>
%%
And other operators aren't so special syntactically, but weird
in other ways, like "scalar", and "goto".
             -- Larry Wall in <199711071749.JAA29751@wall.org>
%%
Portability should be the default.
             -- Larry Wall in <199711072201.OAA01123@wall.org>
%%
If this were Ada, I suppose we'd just constant fold 1/0 into

    die "Illegal division by zero"
             -- Larry Wall in <199711100226.SAA12549@wall.org>
%%
Are you perchance running on a 64-bit machine?
             -- Larry Wall in <199711102149.NAA16878@wall.org>
%%
Almost nothing in Perl serves a single purpose.
             -- Larry Wall in <199712040054.QAA13811@wall.org>
%%
There's some entertainment value in watching people juggle nitroglycerin.
             -- Larry Wall in <199712041747.JAA18908@wall.org>
%%
Reserve your abuse for your true friends.
             -- Larry Wall in <199712041852.KAA19364@wall.org>
%%
Er, Tom, I hate to be the one to point this out, but your fix list
is starting to resemble a feature list.  You must be human or something.
             -- Larry Wall in <199801081824.KAA29602@wall.org>
%%
It's hard to tune heavily tuned code.  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199801141725.JAA07555@wall.org>
%%
Perl will always provide the null.
             -- Larry Wall in <199801151818.KAA14538@wall.org>
%%
It's easy to solve the halting problem with a shotgun.   :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199801151836.KAA14656@wall.org>
%%
Well, I think Perl should run faster than C.  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199801200306.TAA11638@wall.org>
%%
To Perl, or not to Perl, that is the kvetching.
             -- Larry Wall in <199801200310.TAA11670@wall.org>
%%
I suppose you could switch grammars once you've seen "use strict subs".  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199804140117.SAA02006@wall.org>
%%
Well, you know, Hubbard had a bunch of people sworn to commit suicide
when he died.  So of course he never officially died...
             -- Larry Wall in <199804141540.IAA05247@wall.org>
%%
Even the White House has a press agent.  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199804150048.RAA08083@wall.org>
%%
That's a valid argument.  I just don't think it's valid enough.  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199804150050.RAA08093@wall.org>
%%
Perl should remain fast and intuitive (to the extent that it is :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199804151704.KAA12290@wall.org>
%%
I would estimate that the number of programs it breaks in the world
will be less than 10.  As long as one of those 10 isn't CGI.pm, we're
probably okay.
             -- Larry Wall in <199804161805.LAA18882@wall.org>
%%
Just put in another goto, and then it'll be readable.  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199804161810.LAA18902@wall.org>
%%
Doing linear scans over an associative array is like trying to club
someone to death with a loaded Uzi.
             -- Larry Wall
%%
I'm reminded of the day my daughter came in, looked over my shoulder at
some Perl 4 code, and said, "What is that, swearing?"
             -- Larry Wall in <199806181642.JAA10629@wall.org>
%%
Y'know, there are other possibilities if we assume that filenames
are UTF-8...yikes...wait, put down that meat cleaver!  Aieeee!!!
             -- Larry Wall in <199806181655.JAA10702@wall.org>
%%
    print rand rand rand 1, "\n";	# interesting distribution
             -- Larry Wall in <199806191536.IAA19013@wall.org>
%%
: I could understand principles of Perl source in 2-3 days [. . .]

Gee, it took me about eleven years.  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199806200201.TAA22277@wall.org>
%%
There's often more than one correct thing.
There's often more than one right thing.
There's often more than one obvious thing.
             -- Larry Wall in <199806201726.KAA26569@wall.org>
%%
I don't believe I've ever cuddled my elses.
             -- Larry Wall in <199806221550.IAA07171@wall.org>
%%
I've always maintained a cordial dislike for indent, because it's usually
right.
             -- Larry Wall in <199806221558.IAA07251@wall.org>
%%
I'd make people say 'use Fork;' if I thought I could get away with it.
             -- Larry Wall in <199806232054.NAA01735@wall.org>
%%
The way I see it, if you declare something portable, you'll always be
wrong, and if you declare it non-portable, you'll always be right.  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199806232215.PAA02356@wall.org>
%%
Perhaps you should compile your Perl with long doubles one of these
megaseconds.
             -- Larry Wall in <199806241734.KAA09652@wall.org>
%%
But we can both blame it all on Henry.
             -- Larry Wall on perl's regex engine
%%
: Why Bible quotes exclusively?  What happened to the Eastern religions?

I'm still working on the Unicode mods.
             -- Larry Wall in <199807021924.MAA05380@wall.org>
%%
Maybe we should take a clue from FTP and put in an option like "print
hash marks on every 1024 iterations".  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199807171819.LAA13771@wall.org>
%%
And besides, if Perl really takes off in the Windows space, I think the
rest of us would just as soon have a double-agent within ActiveState.  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199807172334.QAA18255@wall.org>
%%
The court finds everyone to be in contempt (including himself :-), and
orders everyone sentenced to five years hard labor.  (Working on Perl,
of course.)
             -- Larry Wall in <199807211548.IAA26184@wall.org>
%%
I note that the Python folks still think they like JPython.  I wonder
how long that will last?
             -- Larry Wall in <199808050009.RAA22631@wall.org>
%%
I view the JVM as just another architecture that Perl ought to be ported to.
(That, and the Underwood typewriter...)
             -- Larry Wall in <199808050415.VAA24026@wall.org>
%%
So please don't think I have a "down" on the MVS people.  I'm just pulling
off their arms to beat other people over the head with.
             -- Larry Wall in <199808050415.VAA24026@wall.org>
%%
It's, uh, pseudo code.  Yeah, that's the ticket...
[...]
And "unicode" is pseudo code for $encoding.  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199808071717.KAA12628@wall.org>
%%
: What do people think?
What, do people think?  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199808071736.KAA12738@wall.org>
%%
Well, sure, I explicitly mentioned "vtables" last time I brought this
up.  But a single pointer is fairly paltry, as tables go.  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199808170117.SAA19369@wall.org>
%%
I dunno.  Perhaps you should be happy that I have a policy of refraining
from grumbling about handicapped operating systems.  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199808291719.KAA12244@wall.org>
%%
Perl did not get where it is by ignoring psychological factors.
             -- Larry Wall in <199809031634.JAA26895@wall.org>
%%
On the plus side, it's a lot easier in general to find /usr/include than cpp.
             -- Larry Wall in <199809041612.JAA05556@wall.org>
%%
Psychotics are consistently inconsistent.  The essence of sanity is
to be inconsistently inconsistent.
             -- Larry Wall in <199809041918.MAA06850@wall.org>
%%
That which hits the fan tends to get flung in all directions.
             -- Larry Wall in <199809091801.LAA15194@wall.org>
%%
If this were Ada, we'd simply doc it as "erroneous".
             -- Larry Wall in <199809111734.KAA28296@wall.org>
%%
So I'm thinking about ??, or !!, or //, or \\, or whatever.  But I
think I like ?? the best so far.  Or the least worst.
             -- Larry Wall in <199809150037.RAA17580@wall.org>
%%
One operator is no big deal.  That can be fixed in a jiffy.
             -- Larry Wall in <199809151814.LAA22396@wall.org>
%%
In Clintonese, that would be "You are free to infer that I was saying
that."  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199809222305.QAA17574@wall.org>
%%
Would you trust the linguistic intuitions of someone who has been
studying Latin or Greek for three days?
             -- Larry Wall in <199809230518.WAA19312@wall.org>
%%
But I know what's important to me, and what isn't.  And I think I know what
people can get used to, and what they can even learn to like.  (It just takes
some people longer than others. :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199809230518.WAA19312@wall.org>
%%
My arthritic pinkies are already starting to ache just thinking about ||||=.
             -- Larry Wall in <199809251659.JAA06689@wall.org>
%%
Orthogonality for orthogonality's sake is not something I'm keen on.
             -- Larry Wall in <199809260112.SAA17178@wall.org>
%%
Hmm, doubtful.  The source code generally wasn't there when I needed it.
             -- Larry Wall when asked if he learned Perl from the perl source
%%
Must be a different Larry Wall.  There are at least 137 of us in the U.S.
             -- Larry Wall in <199809300035.RAA12495@wall.org>
%%
Symmetry is overrated.  Overrated is symmetry.
             -- Larry Wall in <6vhq4r$a6i@kiev.wall.org>
%%
That is a known bug in 5.00550.  Either an upgrade or a downgrade will
fix it.
             -- Larry Wall in <6vu1vo$89c@kiev.wall.org>
%%
That being said, I think we should immediately deprecate any string
concatenation that combines "19" with "99".   :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199811242002.MAA26850@wall.org>
%%
The Golden Gate wasn't our fault either, but we still put a bridge across it.
             -- Larry Wall in <199811242253.OAA28167@wall.org>
%%
It should be illegal to yell "Y2K" in a crowded economy.  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199811242326.PAA28495@wall.org>
%%
I think one fallout from the Halloween debacle is that Microsoft is
rather more aware than they were of how much benefit they're getting
from open source software.
             -- Larry Wall in <199901301945.LAA22023@wall.org>
%%
Microsoft is learning to limit their screwing over to other companies,
not random geese laying golden eggs.  I hope...
             -- Larry Wall in <199901301945.LAA22023@wall.org>
%%
(It can, of course, have run-time effects, especially if you compile at
run-time... :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199902012106.NAA03399@wall.org>
%%
The purpose of most computer languages is to lengthen your resume by
a word and a comma.
             -- Larry Wall
%%
What they need to teach in school is for people to think for themselves.  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199907010532.WAA12080@kiev.wall.org>
%%
Funny, I remember it the other way around, but then, it's my flaky
memory that makes Rule #2 so interesting.  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199908120119.SAA04355@kiev.wall.org>
%%
Of course, this may all be a bad idea.  Fortunately, it'll be optional.
             -- Larry Wall in <199908272155.OAA16922@kiev.wall.org>
%%
That's not to say that I don't think there are strong arguments for
doing it the other way too.  I've been trying to warp my brain to
see Ilya's point of view, and almost succeeding.  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199909010313.UAA16345@kiev.wall.org>
%%
As the supreme court, I reserve the right to declare it unconstitutional,
unless of course you can persuade me to reverse my earlier ruling, which
is certainly possible under Rule 2.
             -- Larry Wall in <199909030050.RAA28760@kiev.wall.org>
%%
Anyone who is spending $999,999,999,999,999 doesn't really care about
the cents.
             -- Larry Wall in <199909041615.JAA09613@kiev.wall.org>
%%
Yes, Perl does an occasional lookahead when it figures the human
involved would do the same.  You can think of it as the exception that
proves the rule.  Well, okay, I don't know if you can, but I can.  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199909042043.NAA10846@kiev.wall.org>
%%
It makes sense to me.  But then, I'm the guy that originally proposed it.  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199903121732.JAA02456@wall.org>
%%
If you lie to perl, it can do whatever it likes.
             -- Larry Wall in <199903192353.PAA26188@kiev.wall.org>
%%
Part of what's confusing the issue is that DESTROY is a verb.  It was
done that way by analogy to FETCH and STORE, but the use of a verb is
unfortunate, in retrospect.  I should have named it something like
YOU_ARE_ABOUT_TO_BE_SHOT_DO_YOU_HAVE_ANY_LAST_WORDS.
             -- Larry Wall in <199904091745.KAA05702@kiev.wall.org>
%%
: Let's say I have a perl object in an OO database.

Let's not.
             -- Larry Wall in <199904091918.MAA06535@kiev.wall.org>
%%
: Do you want perl everywhere or not?

No, sometimes I just want it nearby.
             -- Larry Wall in <199904091930.MAA06625@kiev.wall.org>
%%
What makes you think O'Reilly speaks with one voice?  Let's not forget
that the name of the company is O'Reilly & Associates.  Each part of
O'Reilly works on its own projects, and they hire the experts in that
field.  You expect them not to have opinions?  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199904201729.KAA13931@kiev.wall.org>
%%
You can talk till you're blue in the face, but my wife will continue to
use "xerox" as a verb.  And reporters will continue to use "hackers" to
refer to Script Kiddies.
             -- Larry Wall in <199904211654.JAA21155@kiev.wall.org>
%%
People haggle over words when they've run out of better things to
haggle over.
             -- Larry Wall in <199904211654.JAA21155@kiev.wall.org>
%%
Stability is often more correct than correctness.
             -- Larry Wall in <199904211608.JAA20737@kiev.wall.org>
%%
I'd be slow to label Configure as "bilge".  That's unnecessarily
insulting to all the maintainers of Configure (and metaconfig).
Configure is lovingly crafted, highly knowledgable bilge.
             -- Larry Wall in <199904211701.KAA21217@kiev.wall.org>
%%
People can have many reasons for putting forth an opinion.  But I
usually give them the benefit of the doubt and suppose that they were
asking for critical comment.  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199904222000.NAA29961@kiev.wall.org>
%%
: OK.  Still, it'd be nice to get anonymous scalars somehow.

The Huffman encoding of that is do{\my$x}.
             -- Larry Wall in <199904301707.KAA10870@kiev.wall.org>
%%
: I don't know whether to be pleased or appalled.

This is Perl.  The two are not mutually exclusive.
             -- Larry Wall in <199904301721.KAA11110@kiev.wall.org>
%%
I try not to be right any more than necessary.
             -- Larry Wall in <199909072045.NAA29481@kiev.wall.org>
%%
Just pretend everything in Perl is characters for right now.  We can
tweak and warn and ask forgiveness later.  Actually, I'll ask forgiveness.
You can say you were just following orders.  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199909091918.MAA15218@kiev.wall.org>
%%
Do "grep UTF toke.c" and all will become clear.  (Or as clear as anything
ever is in toke.c.)
             -- Larry Wall in <199909091918.MAA15218@kiev.wall.org>
%%
I don't quite buy this notion that it is somehow cleaner to die at the
drop of hat in a random location.
             -- Larry Wall in <199909142058.NAA19916@kiev.wall.org>
%%
It's easy to fall into the habit of choosing rigor over vigor. [...]  We
already have lots of computer languages with rigor, but not so many with
vigor.
             -- Larry Wall in <199909150039.RAA21137@kiev.wall.org>
%%
But the Perl default must be to preserve information, to be failsoft,
and to try to make the best of a bad situation.  If this makes other
computer programs look bad, well that's their problem.  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199909150039.RAA21137@kiev.wall.org>
%%
I have no problem with sudden death as long as it's someone else's...  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199909150126.SAA21418@kiev.wall.org>
%%
Death is not good.  I reject death.  I will stay away from trucks today.
             -- Larry Wall in <199909151845.LAA26509@kiev.wall.org>
%%
I think I'd prefer to nudge people towards quoting the dash if that's what
they mean.  Otherwise we'll never help the people who think \d-\w produces
a range, for some definition of think.
             -- Larry Wall in <199910121645.JAA18878@kiev.wall.org>
%%
It really doesn't bother me if people want to use grep or map in a void
context.  It didn't bother me before there was a for modifier, and
now that there is one, it still doesn't bother me.  I'm just not very
easy to bother.
             -- Larry Wall in <199911012346.PAA25557@kiev.wall.org>
%%
The argument against using an operator for other than its primary
purpose strikes me the same as the old argument that you shouldn't have
sex for other than procreational purposes.  Sometimes side effects
are more enjoyable than the originally intended effect.
             -- Larry Wall in <199911012346.PAA25557@kiev.wall.org>
%%
And the fact is, I've always loathed qw(), despite the fact that I
invented it myself.  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199911021845.KAA01167@kiev.wall.org>
%%
Perl will never turn into APL, despite our best efforts.
             -- Larry Wall in <199911021845.KAA01167@kiev.wall.org>
%%
Give people enough rope to hang themselves, and they'll usually figure
out how not to, after several successes.
             -- Larry Wall in <199911021845.KAA01167@kiev.wall.org>
%%
I think brackets should do what people expect.  And they'll expect them
to match.  People are funny that way.
             -- Larry Wall in <199911021845.KAA01167@kiev.wall.org>
%%
On the other hand, if we make people declare their weird brackets,
then they could use the many So (symbolic other) symbols that aren't
officially Ps/Pe pairs, but can easily be used that way, such as
WHITE RIGHT POINTING INDEX and WHITE LEFT POINTING INDEX.

Down that path lies jollity.
             -- Larry Wall in <199911021845.KAA01167@kiev.wall.org>
%%
Just because normal goto has to have a real label somewhere doesn't
mean that goto &NAME has to.  It's actually implemented entirely
differently, and only happens to share the keyword with ordinary goto
by chance (or more likely, by idiocy).
             -- Larry Wall in <199911051527.HAA21204@kiev.wall.org>
%%
Before we polish that "diamond", we should probably ask ourselves if
it's brown and stinks.
             -- Larry Wall in <199911061942.LAA29314@kiev.wall.org>
%%
And if it's brown and stinks, we should ask ourselves whether we can
put a saddle on its hump.  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199911061942.LAA29314@kiev.wall.org>
%%
There's a lesson here.  Generalizations are generally useless unless used.
             -- Larry Wall in <199911192159.NAA23536@kiev.wall.org>
%%
I expect people to expect Perl to do the right thing.
             -- Larry Wall in <199911192358.PAA24109@kiev.wall.org>
%%
It also has to be blazing fast, of course, along with reading your mind.
But that's Perl for the coarse.  Or something like that.
             -- Larry Wall in <199911200006.QAA24176@kiev.wall.org>
%%
Pardon me for brainstorming in your general(izational) direction.
             -- Larry Wall in <199911200254.SAA25115@kiev.wall.org>
%%
But anyway, we don't cavalierly add multiple passes to Perl.  Multiple
passes tend to make things easier for the implementer, but harder for
the user.  Perl's loyalties lie with the user.
             -- Larry Wall in <199911231731.JAA16685@kiev.wall.org>
%%
Debugging is easy--just carve pieces off of a block of bug till what
you have left looks like a mistake.  :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199911241757.JAA23712@kiev.wall.org>
%%
: It is simple, flexible, and easy to learn and outperforms all popular
: interpreted languages.

Primarily on sieve benchmarks, which of course are terribly representative
of typical Perl processing.  And I do mean terribly...
             -- Larry Wall in <199911300903.BAA26153@kiev.wall.org>
%%
A yacc is an unruly beast.
             -- Larry Wall in <199912012050.MAA06214@kiev.wall.org>
%%
: But shouldn't eof(), associated as it is with the magic <>, have a
: little magic of its own and trigger the first getc+ungetc from <>?

Makes sense to me, as much as eof() ever makes sense.
             -- Larry Wall in <199912012152.NAA06606@kiev.wall.org>
%%
(Of course, you have to expect some level of verbosity from a language
with a name as long as that.  The author of Euphoria obviously doesn't
carry the gene for carpal tunnel...)
             -- Larry Wall in <199911300903.BAA26153@kiev.wall.org>
%%
Why do language designers persist in thinking that simple languages
produce simple solutions?  All it does is sweep the complexity of the
problem under someone else's carpet.
             -- Larry Wall in <199911300903.BAA26153@kiev.wall.org>
%%
Q: How many programmers does it take to change a Sarathy?
A: None needed, Sarathys never burn out.
             -- Larry Wall in <199912061924.LAA05516@kiev.wall.org>
%%
We might be able to do something similar with lex_formbrack, but I
chickened out.  Bock, bock.
             -- Larry Wall in <199912072039.MAA13257@kiev.wall.org>
%%
: (Hmmm.  I wonder what would be the performance of a text editor written in
: Perl?)

Depends on how you implement your character insertion, your screen
refresh, and your various incestuous internal hooks.  But mostly it
depends on whether you call it pim or pemacs.   :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <200001121555.HAA00949@kiev.wall.org>
%%
I've generally found Sarathy's tastes to be impeccable, though everyone's
tastes need pecking now and then.
             -- Larry Wall in <200001131547.HAA05780@kiev.wall.org>
%%
Hmm, maybe I should give a talk about Perl as a martial art...
             -- Larry Wall in <200001221734.JAA04014@kiev.wall.org>
%%
Almost everyone has to play with getopts at some point in their
existence.  I admit that I was an exception.
             -- Larry Wall in <200001261704.JAA03143@kiev.wall.org>
%%
I don't see much reason to reject the patch other than to be the mud
around a stick.
             -- Larry Wall in <200001261704.JAA03143@kiev.wall.org>
%%
Actually, I'm just waiting for Unicode to take over so we can switch
to using those cute French angle quotes for qw(), which I've always thought
was rather ugly.
             -- Larry Wall in <200002020211.SAA02798@kiev.wall.org>
%%
Coming up with the correct pattern is left as an exercise for the
exorcists.
             -- Larry Wall in <200002031734.JAA24356@kiev.wall.org>
%%
The more I see of UTF-16 the better I dislike it.  BOMs away...
             -- Larry Wall in <200002040726.XAA09947@kiev.wall.org>
%%
The man command is pervasively busted.  But then, so is everything else.
But then, everything else can be fixed.
             -- Larry Wall in <200002081748.JAA29982@kiev.wall.org>
%%
Down *every* path lies madness, if you're talking about documentation.
             -- Larry Wall in <200002081801.KAA00141@kiev.wall.org>
%%
Making people run a fake man command on non-Unix systems is much like
building a pretty white church with a steeple in the jungles of New Guinea.
             -- Larry Wall in <200002081801.KAA00141@kiev.wall.org>
%%
Let him who is without shit cast the first turd.
             -- Larry Wall in <200002101656.IAA02724@kiev.wall.org>
%%
But that's pushing the limits of good taste.  Or more likely, good smell.
             -- Larry Wall in <200002101926.LAA04425@kiev.wall.org>
%%
And frankly, Perl is a blue-collar language, and a bit into populism,
and so I'll tend to favor blue-collar words over white-collar, all
other things being equal, which they never, ever are, for a language
designer.
             -- Larry Wall in <200002102111.NAA05550@kiev.wall.org>
%%
[...] if we decide this version of Perl is different enough to warrant a
new major version (which I'm beginning to think (and even mentioned in a
previous message (but nobody sprang for the bait))).
             -- Larry Wall in <200002121919.LAA27974@kiev.wall.org>
%%
So what if I have a fertile brain?  Fertilizer happens.
             -- Larry Wall in <200002121919.LAA27974@kiev.wall.org>
%%
Darn it, who spiked my coffee with water?!
             -- Larry Wall in <200002141819.KAA18235@kiev.wall.org>
%%
Had I gotten into texinfo, POD probably wouldn't exist, and Tom would be
hacking some other language's docs these days.   :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <200002141858.KAA18636@kiev.wall.org>
%%
It's kind of weird to read a standards document that has all these
instances of "Oh, by the way, Perl does it this way instead."
             -- Larry Wall in <200002142005.MAA19355@kiev.wall.org>
%%
%%
%% From http://www.cpan.org/misc/lwall-quotes.txt.gz 2002-8-13