- commit
- ec48a33
- parent
- eae0a08
- author
- xxwhirlpool
- date
- 2025-09-05 13:16:29 -0400 EDT
add larry wall fortune file
3 files changed,
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2+larrywall.dat: larrywall
3+ @strfile larrywall larrywall.dat
+1415,
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2+All language designers are arrogant. Goes with the territory... :-)
3+ -- Larry Wall in <1991Jul13.010945.19157@netlabs.com
4+%
5+Although the Perl Slogan is There's More Than One Way to Do It, I hesitate
6+to make 10 ways to do something. :-)
7+ -- Larry Wall in <9695@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
8+%
9+And don't tell me there isn't one bit of difference between null and space,
10+because that's exactly how much difference there is. :-)
11+ -- Larry Wall in <10209@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
12+%
13+"And I don't like doing silly things (except on purpose)."
14+ -- Larry Wall in <1992Jul3.191825.14435@netlabs.com>
15+%
16+: And it goes against the grain of building small tools.
17+Innocent, Your Honor. Perl users build small tools all day long.
18+ -- Larry Wall in <1992Aug26.184221.29627@netlabs.com>
19+%
20+/* And you'll never guess what the dog had */
21+/* in its mouth... */
22+ -- Larry Wall in stab.c from the perl source code
23+%
24+Because . doesn't match \n. [\0-\377] is the most efficient way to match
25+everything currently. Maybe \e should match everything. And \E would
26+of course match nothing. :-)
27+ -- Larry Wall in <9847@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
28+%
29+Be consistent.
30+ -- Larry Wall in the perl man page
31+%
32+Besides, including <std_ice_cubes.h> is a fatal error on machines that
33+don't have it yet. Bad language design, there... :-)
34+ -- Larry Wall in <1991Aug22.220929.6857@netlabs.com>
35+%
36+Besides, it's good to force C programmers to use the toolbox occasionally. :-)
37+ -- Larry Wall in <1991May31.181659.28817@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov>
38+%
39+Besides, REAL computers have a rename() system call. :-)
40+ -- Larry Wall in <7937@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
41+%
42+break; /* don't do magic till later */
43+ -- Larry Wall in stab.c from the perl source code
44+%
45+But you have to allow a little for the desire to evangelize when you
46+think you have good news.
47+ -- Larry Wall in <1992Aug26.184221.29627@netlabs.com>
48+%
49+Chip Salzenberg sent me a complete patch to add System V IPC (msg, sem and
50+shm calls), so I added them. If that bothers you, you can always undefine
51+them in config.sh. :-) -- Larry Wall in <9384@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
52+%
53+/* dbmrefcnt--; */ /* doesn't work, rats */
54+ -- Larry Wall in hash.c from the perl source code
55+%
56+#define NULL 0 /* silly thing is, we don't even use this */
57+ -- Larry Wall in perl.c from the perl source code
58+%
59+#define SIGILL 6 /* blech */
60+ -- Larry Wall in perl.c from the perl source code
61+%
62+Does the same as the system call of that name.
63+If you don't know what it does, don't worry about it.
64+ -- Larry Wall in the perl man page regarding chroot(2)
65+%
66+double value; /* or your money back! */
67+short changed; /* so triple your money back! */
68+ -- Larry Wall in cons.c from the perl source code
69+%
70+Down that path lies madness. On the other hand, the road to hell is
71+paved with melting snowballs.
72+ -- Larry Wall in <1992Jul2.222039.26476@netlabs.com>
73+%
74+echo "Congratulations. You aren't running Eunice."
75+ -- Larry Wall in Configure from the perl distribution
76+%
77+echo "Hmmm...you don't have Berkeley networking in libc.a..."
78+echo "but the Wollongong group seems to have hacked it in."
79+ -- Larry Wall in Configure from the perl distribution
80+%
81+echo "ICK, NOTHING WORKED!!! You may have to diddle the includes.";;
82+ -- Larry Wall in Configure from the perl distribution
83+%
84+echo $package has manual pages available in source form.
85+echo "However, you don't have nroff, so they're probably useless to you."
86+ -- Larry Wall in Configure from the perl distribution
87+%
88+echo "Your stdio isn't very std."
89+ -- Larry Wall in Configure from the perl distribution
90+%
91+#else /* !STDSTDIO */ /* The big, slow, and stupid way */
92+ -- Larry Wall in str.c from the perl source code
93+%
94+[End of diatribe. We now return you to your regularly scheduled
95+programming...]
96+ -- Larry Wall in Configure from the perl distribution
97+%
98+Even if you aren't in doubt, consider the mental welfare of the person who
99+has to maintain the code after you, and who will probably put parens in
100+the wrong place. -- Larry Wall in the perl man page
101+%
102+"Help save the world!" -- Larry Wall in README
103+%
104+Hey, I had to let awk be better at *something*... :-)
105+ -- Larry Wall in <1991Nov7.200504.25280@netlabs.com>1
106+%
107+I already have too much problem with people thinking the efficiency of
108+a perl construct is related to its length. On the other hand, I'm
109+perfectly capable of changing my mind next week... :-) --lwall
110+%
111+I don't know if it's what you want, but it's what you get. :-)
112+ -- Larry Wall in <10502@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
113+%
114+I dunno, I dream in Perl sometimes...
115+ -- Larry Wall in <8538@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
116+%
117+If I allowed "next $label" then I'd also have to allow "goto $label",
118+and I don't think you really want that... :-)
119+ -- Larry Wall in <1991Mar11.230002.27271@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov>
120+%
121+If I don't document something, it's usually either for a good reason,
122+or a bad reason. In this case it's a good reason. :-)
123+ -- Larry Wall in <1992Jan17.005405.16806@netlabs.com>
124+%
125+"I find this a nice feature but it is not according to the documentation.
126+Or is it a BUG?"
127+"Let's call it an accidental feature. :-)"
128+ -- Larry Wall in <6909@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
129+%
130+if (instr(buf,sys_errlist[errno])) /* you don't see this */
131+ -- Larry Wall in eval.c from the perl source code
132+%
133+if (rsfp = mypopen("/bin/mail root","w")) { /* heh, heh */
134+ -- Larry Wall in perl.c from the perl source code
135+%
136+If you consistently take an antagonistic approach, however, people are
137+going to start thinking you're from New York. :-)
138+ -- Larry Wall to Dan Bernstein in <10187@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
139+%
140+If you want to program in C, program in C. It's a nice language. I
141+use it occasionally... :-)
142+ -- Larry Wall in <7577@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
143+%
144+If you want to see useful Perl examples, we can certainly arrange to have
145+comp.lang.misc flooded with them, but I don't think that would help the
146+advance of civilization. :-)
147+ -- Larry Wall in <1992Mar5.180926.19041@netlabs.com>
148+%
149+If you want your program to be readable, consider supplying the argument.
150+ -- Larry Wall in the perl man page
151+%
152+I know it's weird, but it does make it easier to write poetry in perl. :-)
153+ -- Larry Wall in <7865@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
154+%
155+I'll say it again for the logic impaired.
156+ -- Larry Wall
157+%
158+I might be able to shoehorn a reference count in on top of the numeric
159+value by disallowing multiple references on scalars with a numeric value,
160+but it wouldn't be as clean. I do occasionally worry about that. --lwall
161+%
162+I'm sure that that could be indented more readably, but I'm scared of
163+the awk parser.
164+ -- Larry Wall in <6849@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
165+%
166+In general, if you think something isn't in Perl, try it out, because it
167+usually is. :-)
168+ -- Larry Wall in <1991Jul31.174523.9447@netlabs.com>
169+%
170+In general, they do what you want, unless you want consistency.
171+ -- Larry Wall in the perl man page
172+%
173+Interestingly enough, since subroutine declarations can come anywhere,
174+you wouldn't have to put BEGIN {} at the beginning, nor END {} at the
175+end. Interesting, no? I wonder if Henry would like it. :-) --lwall
176+%
177+I think it's a new feature. Don't tell anyone it was an accident. :-)
178+ -- Larry Wall on s/foo/bar/eieio in <10911@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
179+%
180+"It is easier to port a shell than a shell script."
181+ -- Larry Wall
182+%
183+It is, of course, written in Perl. Translation to C is left as an
184+exercise for the reader. :-) -- Larry Wall in <7448@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
185+%
186+It's all magic. :-)
187+ -- Larry Wall in <7282@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
188+%
189+It's documented in The Book, somewhere...
190+ -- Larry Wall in <10502@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
191+%
192+> (It's sorta like sed, but not. It's sorta like awk, but not. etc.)
193+Guilty as charged. Perl is happily ugly, and happily derivative.
194+ -- Larry Wall in <1992Aug26.184221.29627@netlabs.com>
195+%
196+It's there as a sop to former Ada programmers. :-)
197+ -- Larry Wall regarding 10_000_000 in <11556@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
198+%
199+It won't be covered in the book. The source code has to be useful for
200+something, after all... :-)
201+ -- Larry Wall in <10160@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
202+%
203+: I've heard that there is a shell (bourne or csh) to perl filter, does
204+: anyone know of this or where I can get it?
205+Yeah, you filter it through Tom Christiansen. :-) -- Larry Wall
206+%
207+: I've tried (in vi) "g/[a-z]\n[a-z]/s//_/"...but that doesn't
208+: cut it. Any ideas? (I take it that it may be a two-pass sort of solution).
209+In the first pass, install perl. :-)
210+ -- Larry Wall <6849@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
211+%
212+I won't mention any names, because I don't want to get sun4's into
213+trouble... :-) -- Larry Wall in <11333@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
214+%
215+Just don't compare it with a real language, or you'll be unhappy... :-)
216+ -- Larry Wall in <1992May12.190238.5667@netlabs.com>
217+%
218+Just don't create a file called -rf. :-)
219+ -- Larry Wall in <11393@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
220+%
221+last|perl -pe '$_ x=/(..:..)...(.*)/&&"'$1'"ge$1&&"'$1'"lt$2'
222+That's gonna be tough for Randal to beat... :-)
223+ -- Larry Wall in <1991Apr29.072206.5621@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov>
224+%
225+Let's say the docs present a simplified view of reality... :-)
226+ -- Larry Wall in <6940@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
227+%
228+Let us be charitable, and call it a misleading feature :-)
229+ -- Larry Wall in <2609@jato.Jpl.Nasa.Gov>
230+%
231+Lispers are among the best grads of the Sweep-It-Under-Someone-Else's-Carpet
232+School of Simulated Simplicity. [Was that sufficiently incendiary? :-)]
233+ -- Larry Wall in <1992Jan10.201804.11926@netlabs.com
234+%
235+No, I'm not going to explain it. If you can't figure it out, you didn't
236+want to know anyway... :-)
237+ -- Larry Wall in <1991Aug7.180856.2854@netlabs.com>
238+%
239+/* now make a new head in the exact same spot */
240+ -- Larry Wall in cons.c from the perl source code
241+%
242+OK, enough hype.
243+ -- Larry Wall in the perl man page
244+%
245+OOPS! You naughty creature! You didn't run Configure with sh!
246+I will attempt to remedy the situation by running sh for you...
247+ -- Larry Wall in Configure from the perl distribution
248+%
249+Perl is designed to give you several ways to do anything, so
250+consider picking the most readable one.
251+ -- Larry Wall in the perl man page
252+%
253+Perl itself is usually pretty good about telling you what you shouldn't
254+do. :-)
255+ -- Larry Wall in <11091@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
256+%
257+Perl programming is an *empirical* science!
258+ -- Larry Wall in <10226@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
259+%
260+pos += screamnext[pos] /* does this goof up anywhere? */
261+ -- Larry Wall in util.c from the perl source code
262+%
263+Q. Why is this so clumsy?
264+A. The trick is to use Perl's strengths rather than its weaknesses.
265+ -- Larry Wall in <8225@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
266+%
267+Randal said it would be tough to do in sed. He didn't say he didn't
268+understand sed. Randal understands sed quite well. Which is why he
269+uses Perl. :-) -- Larry Wall in <7874@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
270+%
271+Real programmers can write assembly code in any language. :-)
272+ -- Larry Wall in <8571@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
273+%
274+Remember though that
275+THERE IS NO GENERAL RULE FOR CONVERTING A LIST INTO A SCALAR.
276+ -- Larry Wall in the perl man page
277+%
278+s = (char*)(long)retval; /* ouch */
279+ -- Larry Wall in doio.c from the perl source code
280+%
281+signal(i, SIG_DFL); /* crunch, crunch, crunch */
282+ -- Larry Wall in doarg.c from the perl source code
283+%
284+Sorry. My testing organization is either too small, or too large, depending
285+on how you look at it. :-)
286+ -- Larry Wall in <1991Apr22.175438.8564@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov>
287+%
288+stab_val(stab)->str_nok = 1; /* what a wonderful hack! */
289+ -- Larry Wall in stab.c from the perl source code
290+%
291+str->str_pok |= SP_FBM; /* deep magic */
292+s = (unsigned char*)(str->str_ptr); /* deeper magic */
293+ -- Larry Wall in util.c from the perl source code
294+%
295+Tactical? TACTICAL!?!? Hey, buddy, we went from kilotons to megatons
296+several minutes ago. We don't need no stinkin' tactical nukes.
297+(By the way, do you have change for 10 million people?) --lwall
298+%
299+That means I'll have to use $ans to suppress newlines now.
300+Life is ridiculous.
301+ -- Larry Wall in Configure from the perl distribution
302+%
303+The autodecrement is not magical.
304+ -- Larry Wall in the perl man page
305+%
306+The only disadvantage I see is that it would force everyone to get Perl.
307+Horrors. :-)
308+ -- Larry Wall in <8854@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
309+%
310+*** The previous line contains the naughty word "$&".\n
311+if /(ibm|apple|awk)/; # :-)
312+ -- Larry Wall in the perl man page
313+%
314+There ain't nothin' in this world that's worth being a snot over.
315+ -- Larry Wall in <1992Aug19.041614.6963@netlabs.com>
316+%
317+There are many times when you want it to ignore the rest of the string just
318+like atof() does. Oddly enough, Perl calls atof(). How convenient. :-)
319+ -- Larry Wall in <1991Jun24.231628.14446@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov>
320+%
321+There are probably better ways to do that, but it would make the parser
322+more complex. I do, occasionally, struggle feebly against complexity... :-)
323+ -- Larry Wall in <7886@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
324+%
325+There are still some other things to do, so don't think if I didn't fix
326+your favorite bug that your bug report is in the bit bucket. (It may be,
327+but don't think it. :-) Larry Wall in <7238@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
328+%
329+There is, however, a strange, musty smell in the air that reminds me of
330+something...hmm...yes...I've got it...there's a VMS nearby, or I'm a Blit.
331+ -- Larry Wall in Configure from the perl distribution
332+%
333+"The road to hell is paved with melting snowballs."
334+ -- Larry Wall in <1992Jul2.222039.26476@netlabs.com>
335+%
336+/* This bit of chicanery makes a unary function followed by
337+a parenthesis into a function with one argument, highest precedence. */
338+ -- Larry Wall in toke.c from the perl source code
339+%
340+"...this does not mean that some of us should not want, in a rather
341+dispassionate sort of way, to put a bullet through csh's head."
342+Larry Wall in <1992Aug6.221512.5963@netlabs.com>
343+%
344+> This made me wonder, suddenly: can telnet be written in perl?
345+Of course it can be written in Perl. Now if you'd said nroff,
346+that would be more challenging... -- Larry Wall
347+%
348+Though I'll admit readability suffers slightly...
349+ -- Larry Wall in <2969@jato.Jpl.Nasa.Gov>
350+%
351+tmps_base = tmps_max; /* protect our mortal string */
352+ -- Larry Wall in stab.c from the perl source code
353+%
354+Unix is like a toll road on which you have to stop every 50 feet to
355+pay another nickel. But hey! You only feel 5 cents poorer each time.
356+ -- Larry Wall in <1992Aug13.192357.15731@netlabs.com>
357+%
358+"We all agree on the necessity of compromise. We just can't agree on
359+when it's necessary to compromise."
360+ -- Larry Wall in <1991Nov13.194420.28091@netlabs.com>
361+%
362+/* we have tried to make this normal case as abnormal as possible */
363+ -- Larry Wall in cmd.c from the perl source code
364+%
365+What about WRITING it first and rationalizing it afterwords? :-)
366+ -- Larry Wall in <8162@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
367+%
368+: 1. What is the possibility of this being added in the future?
369+In the near future, the probability is close to zero. In the distant
370+future, I'll be dead, and posterity can do whatever they like... :-) --lwall
371+%
372+"What is the sound of Perl? Is it not the sound of a wall that
373+people have stopped banging their heads against?"
374+ -- Larry Wall in <1992Aug26.184221.29627@netlabs.com>
375+%
376+When in doubt, parenthesize. At the very least it will let some
377+poor schmuck bounce on the % key in vi.
378+ -- Larry Wall in the perl man page
379+%
380+"You can't have filenames longer than 14 chars.
381+You can't even think about them!"
382+ -- Larry Wall in Configure from the perl distribution
383+%
384+You have to admit that it's difficult to misplace the Perl sources. :-)
385+ -- Larry Wall in <1992Aug26.184221.29627@netlabs.com>
386+%
387+Your csh still thinks true is false. Write to your vendor today and tell
388+them that next year Configure ought to "rm /bin/csh" unless they fix their
389+blasted shell. :-) -- Larry Wall in Configure from the perl distribution
390+%
391+You want it in one line? Does it have to fit in 80 columns? :-)
392+ -- Larry Wall in <7349@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
393+%
394+Well, enough clowning around. Perl is, in intent, a cleaned up and
395+summarized version of that wonderful semi-natural language known as
396+"Unix".
397+ -- Larry Wall in <1994Apr6.184419.3687@netlabs.com>
398+%
399+Anyway, there's plenty of room for doubt. It might seem easy enough,
400+but computer language design is just like a stroll in the park.
401+
402+Jurassic Park, that is.
403+ -- Larry Wall in <1994Jun15.074039.2654@netlabs.com>
404+%
405+I want to see people using Perl to glue things together creatively, not
406+just technically but also socially.
407+ -- Larry Wall in <199702111730.JAA28598@wall.org>
408+%
409+The whole history of computers is rampant with cheerleading at best and
410+bigotry at worst.
411+ -- Larry Wall in <199702111730.JAA28598@wall.org>
412+%
413+If someone stinks, view it as a reason to help them, not a reason to
414+avoid them.
415+ -- Larry Wall in <199702111730.JAA28598@wall.org>
416+%
417+As usual, I'm overstating the case to knock a few neurons loose, but the
418+truth is usually somewhere in the muddle, uh, middle.
419+ -- Larry Wall in <199702111639.IAA28425@wall.org>
420+%
421+Odd that we think definitions are definitive. :-)
422+ -- Larry Wall in <199702221943.LAA20388@wall.org>
423+%
424+: But for some things, Perl just isn't the optimal choice.
425+
426+(yet) :-)
427+ -- Larry Wall in <199702221943.LAA20388@wall.org>
428+%
429+I don't like this official/unofficial distinction. It sound, er, officious.
430+ -- Larry Wall in <199702221943.LAA20388@wall.org>
431+%
432+If you write something wrong enough, I'll be glad to make up a new
433+witticism just for you.
434+ -- Larry Wall in <199702221943.LAA20388@wall.org>
435+%
436+So far we've managed to avoid turning Perl into APL. :-)
437+ -- Larry Wall in <199702251904.LAA28261@wall.org>
438+%
439+Not that I have anything much against redundancy. But I said that already.
440+ -- Larry Wall in <199702271735.JAA04048@wall.org>
441+%
442+They can always run stderr through uniq. :-)
443+ -- Larry Wall in <199704012331.PAA16535@wall.org>
444+%
445+I'd put my money where my mouth is, but my mouth keeps moving.
446+ -- Larry Wall in <199704051723.JAA28035@wall.org>
447+%
448+Of course, I reserve the right to make wholly stupid changes to Perl
449+if I think they improve the language. :-)
450+ -- Larry Wall in <199704251604.JAA27300@wall.org>
451+%
452+Call me bored, but don't call me boring.
453+ -- Larry Wall in <199705101952.MAA00756@wall.org>
454+%
455+I think $[ is more like a coelacanth than a mastadon.
456+ -- Larry Wall in <199705101952.MAA00756@wall.org>
457+%
458+We question most of the mantras around here periodically, in case
459+you hadn't noticed. :-)
460+ -- Larry Wall in <199705101952.MAA00756@wall.org>
461+%
462+(Presuming for the sake of argument that it's even *possible* to design
463+better code in Perl than in C. :-)
464+ -- Larry Wall on core code vs. module code design
465+%
466+That could certainly be done, but I don't want to fall into the Forth
467+trap, where every running Forth implementation is really a different
468+language.
469+ -- Larry Wall in <199705101952.MAA00756@wall.org>
470+%
471+Tcl long ago fell into the Forth trap, and is now trying desperately to
472+extricate itself (with some help from Sun's marketing department).
473+ -- Larry Wall in <199705101952.MAA00756@wall.org>
474+%
475+The whole intent of Perl 5's module system was to encourage the growth
476+of Perl culture rather than the Perl core.
477+ -- Larry Wall in <199705101952.MAA00756@wall.org>
478+%
479+Randal can write one-liners again. Everyone is happy, and peace spreads
480+over the whole Earth.
481+ -- Larry Wall in <199705101952.MAA00756@wall.org>
482+%
483+Life gets boring, someone invents another necessity, and once again we
484+turn the crank on the screwjack of progress hoping that nobody gets
485+screwed.
486+ -- Larry Wall in <199705101952.MAA00756@wall.org>
487+%
488+No prisoner's dilemma here. Over the long term, symbiosis is more
489+useful than parasitism. More fun, too. Ask any mitochondria.
490+ -- Larry Wall in <199705102042.NAA00851@wall.org>
491+%
492+Obviously I was either onto something, or on something.
493+ -- Larry Wall on the creation of Perl
494+%
495+It's the Magic that counts.
496+ -- Larry Wall on Perl's apparent ugliness
497+%
498+May you do Good Magic with Perl.
499+ -- Larry Wall's blessing
500+%
501+P.S. Perl's master plan (or what passes for one) is to take over the
502+world like English did. Er, *as* English did...
503+ -- Larry Wall in <199705201832.LAA28393@wall.org>
504+%
505+You can prove anything by mentioning another computer language. :-)
506+ -- Larry Wall in <199706242038.NAA29853@wall.org>
507+%
508+I think you didn't get a reply because you used the terms "correct" and
509+"proper", neither of which has much meaning in Perl culture. :-)
510+ -- Larry Wall in <199706251602.JAA01786@wall.org>
511+%
512+I'm sure a mathematician would claim that 0 and 1 are both very
513+interesting numbers. :-)
514+ -- Larry Wall in <199707300650.XAA05515@wall.org>
515+%
516+True, it returns "" for false, but "" is an even more interesting
517+number than 0.
518+ -- Larry Wall in <199707300650.XAA05515@wall.org>
519+%
520+Any false value is gonna be fairly boring in Perl, mathematicians
521+notwithstanding.
522+ -- Larry Wall in <199707300650.XAA05515@wall.org>
523+%
524+We didn't put in ^^ because then we'd have to keep telling people what
525+it means, and then we'd have to keep telling them why it doesn't short
526+circuit. :-/
527+ -- Larry Wall in <199707300650.XAA05515@wall.org>
528+%
529+Anybody want a binary telemetry frame editor written in Perl?
530+ -- Larry Wall in <199708012226.PAA22015@wall.org>
531+%
532+Perhaps I'm missing the gene for making enemies. :-)
533+ -- Larry Wall in <199708040319.UAA16213@wall.org>
534+%
535+Perl has a long tradition of working around compilers.
536+ -- Larry Wall in <199708252256.PAA00105@wall.org>
537+%
538+Personally, I like to defiantly split my infinitives. :-)
539+ -- Larry Wall in <199708271551.IAA10211@wall.org>
540+%
541+Real theology is always rather shocking to people who already
542+think they know what they think. I'm still shocked myself. :-)
543+ -- Larry Wall in <199708261932.MAA05218@wall.org>
544+%
545+The computer should be doing the hard work. That's what it's paid to do,
546+after all.
547+ -- Larry Wall in <199709012312.QAA08121@wall.org>
548+%
549+The following two statements are usually both true:
550+ There's not enough documentation.
551+ There's too much documentation.
552+ -- Larry Wall in <199709020026.RAA08431@wall.org>
553+%
554+Of course, this being Perl, we could always take both approaches. :-)
555+ -- Larry Wall in <199709021744.KAA12428@wall.org>
556+%
557+The random quantum fluctuations of my brain are historical accidents that
558+happen to have decided that the concepts of dynamic scoping and lexical
559+scoping are orthogonal and should remain that way.
560+ -- Larry Wall in <199709021854.LAA12794@wall.org>
561+%
562+At many levels, Perl is a "diagonal" language.
563+ -- Larry Wall in <199709021854.LAA12794@wall.org>
564+%
565+I'm serious about thinking through all the possibilities before we
566+settle on anything. All things have the advantages of their
567+disadvantages, and vice versa.
568+ -- Larry Wall in <199709032332.QAA21669@wall.org>
569+%
570+Part of language design is purturbing the proposed feature in various
571+directions to see how it might generalize in the future.
572+ -- Larry Wall in <199709032332.QAA21669@wall.org>
573+%
574+Sometimes we choose the generalization. Sometimes we don't.
575+ -- Larry Wall in <199709032332.QAA21669@wall.org>
576+%
577+I wouldn't ever write the full sentence myself, but then, I never use
578+goto either.
579+ -- Larry Wall in <199709032332.QAA21669@wall.org>
580+%
581+It's appositival, if it's there. And it doesn't have to be there.
582+And it's really obvious that it's there when it's there.
583+ -- Larry Wall in <199709032332.QAA21669@wall.org>
584+%
585+Oh, get ahold of yourself. Nobody's proposing that we parse English.
586+ -- Larry Wall in <199709032332.QAA21669@wall.org>
587+%
588+As with all the other proposals, it's basically just a list of words.
589+You can deal with that... :-)
590+ -- Larry Wall in <199709032332.QAA21669@wall.org>
591+%
592+I hope I'm not getting so famous that I can't think out load [sic] anymore.
593+ -- Larry Wall in <199709032332.QAA21669@wall.org>
594+%
595+It would be possible to optimize some forms of goto, but I haven't
596+bothered.
597+ -- Larry Wall in <199709041935.MAA27136@wall.org>
598+%
599+A "goto" in Perl falls into the category of hard things that should be
600+possible, not easy things that should be easy.
601+ -- Larry Wall in <199709041935.MAA27136@wall.org>
602+%
603+How do Crays and Alphas handle the POSIX problem?
604+ -- Larry Wall in <199709050042.RAA29379@wall.org>
605+%
606+Well, that's more-or-less what I was saying, though obviously addition
607+is a little more cosmic than the bitwise operators.
608+ -- Larry Wall in <199709051808.LAA01780@wall.org>
609+%
610+You tell it that it's indicative by appending $!. That's why we made $!
611+such a short variable name, after all. :-)
612+ -- Larry Wall in <199709081801.LAA20629@wall.org>
613+%
614+The choice of approaches could be made the responsibility of the
615+programmer.
616+ -- Larry Wall in <199709081901.MAA20863@wall.org>
617+%
618+As someone pointed out, you could have an attribute that says "optimize
619+the heck out of this routine", and your definition of heck would be a
620+parameter to the optimizer.
621+ -- Larry Wall in <199709081854.LAA20830@wall.org>
622+%
623+If you're going to define a shortcut, then make it the base [sic] darn
624+shortcut you can.
625+ -- Larry Wall in <199709241628.JAA08908@wall.org>
626+%
627+It is my job in life to travel all roads, so that some may take the road
628+less travelled, and others the road more travelled, and all have a
629+pleasant day.
630+ -- Larry Wall in <199709241628.JAA08908@wall.org>
631+%
632+It's getting harder and harder to think out loud. One of these days
633+someone's gonna go off and kill Thomas a'Becket for me...
634+ -- Larry Wall in <199709242015.NAA10312@wall.org>
635+%
636+I was about to say, "Avoid fame like the plague," but you know, they can
637+cure the plague with penicillin these days.
638+ -- Larry Wall in <199709242015.NAA10312@wall.org>
639+%
640+But the possibility of abuse may be a good reason for leaving
641+capabilities out of other computer languages, it's not a good reason for
642+leaving capabilities out of Perl.
643+ -- Larry Wall in <199709251614.JAA15718@wall.org>
644+%
645+Oh, wait, that was Randal...nevermind...
646+ -- Larry Wall in <199709261754.KAA23761@wall.org>
647+%
648+P.S. I suppose I really should be nicer to people today, considering
649+I'll be singing in Billy Graham's choir tonight... :-)
650+ -- Larry Wall in <199709261754.KAA23761@wall.org>
651+%
652+Magically turning people's old scalar contexts into list contexts is a
653+recipe for several kinds of disaster.
654+ -- Larry Wall in <199709291631.JAA08648@wall.org>
655+%
656+And we can always supply them with a program that makes identical files
657+into links to a single file.
658+ -- Larry Wall in <199709292012.NAA09616@wall.org>
659+%
660+I wasn't recommending that we make the links for them, only provide them
661+with the tools to do so if they want to take the gamble (or the gambol).
662+ -- Larry Wall in <199709292259.PAA10407@wall.org>
663+%
664+This has been planned for some time. I guess we'll just have to find
665+someone with an exceptionally round tuit.
666+ -- Larry Wall in <199709302338.QAA17037@wall.org>
667+%
668+ switch (ref $@) {
669+ OverflowError =>
670+ warn "Dam needs to be drained";
671+ DomainError =>
672+ warn "King needs to be trained";
673+ NuclearWarError =>
674+ die;
675+ }
676+ -- Larry Wall in <199709302338.QAA17037@wall.org>
677+%
678+I surely do hope that's a syntax error.
679+ -- Larry Wall in <199710011752.KAA21624@wall.org>
680+%
681+Anyway, my money is still on use strict vars . . .
682+ -- Larry Wall in <199710011704.KAA21395@wall.org>
683+%
684+If you remove stricture from a large Perl program currently, you're just
685+installing delayed bugs, whereas with this feature, you're installing an
686+instant bug that's easily fixed. Whoopee.
687+ -- Larry Wall in <199710050130.SAA04762@wall.org>
688+%
689+I don't think it's worth washing hogs over.
690+ -- Larry Wall in <199710060253.TAA09723@wall.org>
691+%
692+It's certainly easy to calculate the average attendance for Perl
693+conferences.
694+ -- Larry Wall in <199710071721.KAA19014@wall.org>
695+%
696+Tcl tends to get ported to weird places like routers.
697+ -- Larry Wall in <199710071721.KAA19014@wall.org>
698+%
699+Historically Tcl has always stored all intermediate results as strings.
700+(With 8.0 they're rethinking that. Of course, Perl rethought that from
701+the start.)
702+ -- Larry Wall in <199710071721.KAA19014@wall.org>
703+%
704+I knew I'd hate COBOL the moment I saw they'd used "perform" instead of
705+"do".
706+ -- Larry Wall on a not-so-popular programming language
707+%
708+Just don't make the '9' format pack/unpack numbers... :-)
709+ -- Larry Wall in <199710091434.HAA00838@wall.org>
710+%
711+I think that's easier to read. Pardon me. Less difficult to read.
712+ -- Larry Wall in <199710120226.TAA06867@wall.org>
713+%
714+To ordinary folks, conversion is not always automatic. It's something
715+that may or may not require explicit assistance. See Billy Graham. :-)
716+ -- Larry Wall in <199710141738.KAA22289@wall.org>
717+%
718+Well, you can implement a Perl peek() with unpack('P',...). Once you
719+have that, there's only security through obscurity. :-)
720+ -- Larry Wall in <199710161537.IAA07828@wall.org>
721+%
722+It may be possible to get this condition from within Perl if a signal
723+handler runs at just the wrong moment. Another point for Chip... :-)
724+ -- Larry Wall in <199710161546.IAA07885@wall.org>
725+%
726+As pointed out in a followup, Real Perl Programmers prefer things to be
727+visually distinct.
728+ -- Larry Wall in <199710161841.LAA13208@wall.org>
729+%
730+The Harvard Law states: Under controlled conditions of light, temperature,
731+humidity, and nutrition, the organism will do as it damn well pleases.
732+ -- Larry Wall in <199710161841.LAA13208@wall.org>
733+%
734+That should probably be written:
735+ no !@#$%^&*:@!semicolon
736+ -- Larry Wall in <199710161841.LAA13208@wall.org>
737+%
738+That gets us out of deciding how to spell Reg[eE]xp?|RE . . .
739+Of course, then we have to decide what ref $re returns... :-)
740+ -- Larry Wall in <199710171838.LAA24968@wall.org>
741+%
742+'Course, that doesn't work when 'a' contains parentheses.
743+ -- Larry Wall in <199710211647.JAA17957@wall.org>
744+%
745+I was trying not to mention backtracking. Which, of course, means that
746+yours is "righter" than mine, in a theoretical sense.
747+ -- Larry Wall in <199710211624.JAA17833@wall.org>
748+%
749+Not that I'm against sneaking some notions into people's heads upon
750+occasion. (Or blasting them in outright.)
751+ -- Larry Wall in <199710211624.JAA17833@wall.org>
752+%
753+(To the extent that anyone but a Prolog programmer can understand \X totally.
754+(And to the extent that a Prolog programmer can understand "cut". :-))
755+ -- Larry Wall in <199710211624.JAA17833@wall.org>
756+%
757+Wow, I'm being shot at from both sides. That means I *must* be right. :-)
758+ -- Larry Wall in <199710211959.MAA18990@wall.org>
759+%
760+You don't have to wait--you can have it in 5.004_54 or so. :-)
761+ -- Larry Wall in <199710221740.KAA24455@wall.org>
762+%
763+There's something to be said for returning the whole syntax tree.
764+ -- Larry Wall in <199710221833.LAA24741@wall.org>
765+%
766+It's not really a rule--it's more like a trend.
767+ -- Larry Wall in <199710221721.KAA24321@wall.org>
768+%
769+Double *sigh*. _04 is going onto thousands of CDs even as we speak,
770+so to speak.
771+ -- Larry Wall in <199710221718.KAA24299@wall.org>
772+%
773+The code also assumes that it's difficult to misspell "a" or "b". :-)
774+ -- Larry Wall in <199710221731.KAA24396@wall.org>
775+%
776+Well, hey, let's just make everything into a closure, and then we'll
777+have our general garbage collector, installed by "use less memory".
778+ -- Larry Wall in <199710221744.KAA24484@wall.org>
779+%
780+People who understand context would be steamed to have someone else
781+dictating how they can call it.
782+ -- Larry Wall in <199710221710.KAA24242@wall.org>
783+%
784+For the sake of argument I'll ignore all your fighting words.
785+ -- Larry Wall in <199710221710.KAA24242@wall.org>
786+%
787+Think of prototypes as a funny markup language--the interpretation is
788+left up to the rendering engine.
789+ -- Larry Wall in <199710221710.KAA24242@wall.org>
790+%
791+The way these things go, there are probably 6 or 8 kludgey ways to do
792+it, and a better way that involves rethinking something that hasn't
793+been rethunk yet.
794+ -- Larry Wall in <199710221859.LAA24889@wall.org>
795+%
796+Beauty? What's that?
797+ -- Larry Wall in <199710221937.MAA25131@wall.org>
798+%
799+I'm afraid my gut level reaction is basically, "'proceed' is cute, but
800+cute doesn't cut it in the emergency room."
801+ -- Larry Wall in <199710281816.KAA29614@wall.org>
802+%
803+I suppose one could claim that an undocumented feature has no
804+semantics. :-(
805+ -- Larry Wall in <199710290036.QAA01818@wall.org>
806+%
807+Yes, we have consensus that we need 64 bit support. :-)
808+ -- Larry Wall in <199710291922.LAA07101@wall.org>
809+%
810+: - cut in regexps
811+
812+I don't think we reached consensus on that. We're still backtracking...
813+ -- Larry Wall in <199710291922.LAA07101@wall.org>
814+%
815+Boss: You forgot to assign the result of your map!
816+Hacker: Dang, I'm always forgetting my assignations...
817+Boss: And what's that "goto" doing there?!?
818+Hacker: Er, I guess my finger slipped when I was typing "getservbyport"...
819+Boss: Ah well, accidents will happen. Maybe we should have picked APL.
820+ -- Larry Wall in <199710311732.JAA19169@wall.org>
821+%
822+Perhaps they will have to outlaw sending random lists of words. fee fie
823+foe foo
824+ -- Larry Wall in <199710311916.LAA19760@wall.org>
825+%
826+Hey, if pi == 3, and three == 0, does that make pi == 0? :-)
827+ -- Larry Wall in <199711011926.LAA25557@wall.org>
828+%
829+(Never thought I'd be telling Malcolm and Ilya the same thing... :-)
830+ -- Larry Wall in <199711071819.KAA29909@wall.org>
831+%
832+And other operators aren't so special syntactically, but weird
833+in other ways, like "scalar", and "goto".
834+ -- Larry Wall in <199711071749.JAA29751@wall.org>
835+%
836+Portability should be the default.
837+ -- Larry Wall in <199711072201.OAA01123@wall.org>
838+%
839+If this were Ada, I suppose we'd just constant fold 1/0 into
840+
841+ die "Illegal division by zero"
842+ -- Larry Wall in <199711100226.SAA12549@wall.org>
843+%
844+Are you perchance running on a 64-bit machine?
845+ -- Larry Wall in <199711102149.NAA16878@wall.org>
846+%
847+Almost nothing in Perl serves a single purpose.
848+ -- Larry Wall in <199712040054.QAA13811@wall.org>
849+%
850+There's some entertainment value in watching people juggle nitroglycerin.
851+ -- Larry Wall in <199712041747.JAA18908@wall.org>
852+%
853+Reserve your abuse for your true friends.
854+ -- Larry Wall in <199712041852.KAA19364@wall.org>
855+%
856+Er, Tom, I hate to be the one to point this out, but your fix list
857+is starting to resemble a feature list. You must be human or something.
858+ -- Larry Wall in <199801081824.KAA29602@wall.org>
859+%
860+It's hard to tune heavily tuned code. :-)
861+ -- Larry Wall in <199801141725.JAA07555@wall.org>
862+%
863+Perl will always provide the null.
864+ -- Larry Wall in <199801151818.KAA14538@wall.org>
865+%
866+It's easy to solve the halting problem with a shotgun. :-)
867+ -- Larry Wall in <199801151836.KAA14656@wall.org>
868+%
869+Well, I think Perl should run faster than C. :-)
870+ -- Larry Wall in <199801200306.TAA11638@wall.org>
871+%
872+To Perl, or not to Perl, that is the kvetching.
873+ -- Larry Wall in <199801200310.TAA11670@wall.org>
874+%
875+I suppose you could switch grammars once you've seen "use strict subs". :-)
876+ -- Larry Wall in <199804140117.SAA02006@wall.org>
877+%
878+Well, you know, Hubbard had a bunch of people sworn to commit suicide
879+when he died. So of course he never officially died...
880+ -- Larry Wall in <199804141540.IAA05247@wall.org>
881+%
882+Even the White House has a press agent. :-)
883+ -- Larry Wall in <199804150048.RAA08083@wall.org>
884+%
885+That's a valid argument. I just don't think it's valid enough. :-)
886+ -- Larry Wall in <199804150050.RAA08093@wall.org>
887+%
888+Perl should remain fast and intuitive (to the extent that it is :-)
889+ -- Larry Wall in <199804151704.KAA12290@wall.org>
890+%
891+I would estimate that the number of programs it breaks in the world
892+will be less than 10. As long as one of those 10 isn't CGI.pm, we're
893+probably okay.
894+ -- Larry Wall in <199804161805.LAA18882@wall.org>
895+%
896+Just put in another goto, and then it'll be readable. :-)
897+ -- Larry Wall in <199804161810.LAA18902@wall.org>
898+%
899+Doing linear scans over an associative array is like trying to club
900+someone to death with a loaded Uzi.
901+ -- Larry Wall
902+%
903+I'm reminded of the day my daughter came in, looked over my shoulder at
904+some Perl 4 code, and said, "What is that, swearing?"
905+ -- Larry Wall in <199806181642.JAA10629@wall.org>
906+%
907+Y'know, there are other possibilities if we assume that filenames
908+are UTF-8...yikes...wait, put down that meat cleaver! Aieeee!!!
909+ -- Larry Wall in <199806181655.JAA10702@wall.org>
910+%
911+ print rand rand rand 1, "\n"; # interesting distribution
912+ -- Larry Wall in <199806191536.IAA19013@wall.org>
913+%
914+: I could understand principles of Perl source in 2-3 days [. . .]
915+
916+Gee, it took me about eleven years. :-)
917+ -- Larry Wall in <199806200201.TAA22277@wall.org>
918+%
919+There's often more than one correct thing.
920+There's often more than one right thing.
921+There's often more than one obvious thing.
922+ -- Larry Wall in <199806201726.KAA26569@wall.org>
923+%
924+I don't believe I've ever cuddled my elses.
925+ -- Larry Wall in <199806221550.IAA07171@wall.org>
926+%
927+I've always maintained a cordial dislike for indent, because it's usually
928+right.
929+ -- Larry Wall in <199806221558.IAA07251@wall.org>
930+%
931+I'd make people say 'use Fork;' if I thought I could get away with it.
932+ -- Larry Wall in <199806232054.NAA01735@wall.org>
933+%
934+The way I see it, if you declare something portable, you'll always be
935+wrong, and if you declare it non-portable, you'll always be right. :-)
936+ -- Larry Wall in <199806232215.PAA02356@wall.org>
937+%
938+Perhaps you should compile your Perl with long doubles one of these
939+megaseconds.
940+ -- Larry Wall in <199806241734.KAA09652@wall.org>
941+%
942+But we can both blame it all on Henry.
943+ -- Larry Wall on perl's regex engine
944+%
945+: Why Bible quotes exclusively? What happened to the Eastern religions?
946+
947+I'm still working on the Unicode mods.
948+ -- Larry Wall in <199807021924.MAA05380@wall.org>
949+%
950+Maybe we should take a clue from FTP and put in an option like "print
951+hash marks on every 1024 iterations". :-)
952+ -- Larry Wall in <199807171819.LAA13771@wall.org>
953+%
954+And besides, if Perl really takes off in the Windows space, I think the
955+rest of us would just as soon have a double-agent within ActiveState. :-)
956+ -- Larry Wall in <199807172334.QAA18255@wall.org>
957+%
958+The court finds everyone to be in contempt (including himself :-), and
959+orders everyone sentenced to five years hard labor. (Working on Perl,
960+of course.)
961+ -- Larry Wall in <199807211548.IAA26184@wall.org>
962+%
963+I note that the Python folks still think they like JPython. I wonder
964+how long that will last?
965+ -- Larry Wall in <199808050009.RAA22631@wall.org>
966+%
967+I view the JVM as just another architecture that Perl ought to be ported to.
968+(That, and the Underwood typewriter...)
969+ -- Larry Wall in <199808050415.VAA24026@wall.org>
970+%
971+So please don't think I have a "down" on the MVS people. I'm just pulling
972+off their arms to beat other people over the head with.
973+ -- Larry Wall in <199808050415.VAA24026@wall.org>
974+%
975+It's, uh, pseudo code. Yeah, that's the ticket...
976+[...]
977+And "unicode" is pseudo code for $encoding. :-)
978+ -- Larry Wall in <199808071717.KAA12628@wall.org>
979+%
980+: What do people think?
981+What, do people think? :-)
982+ -- Larry Wall in <199808071736.KAA12738@wall.org>
983+%
984+Well, sure, I explicitly mentioned "vtables" last time I brought this
985+up. But a single pointer is fairly paltry, as tables go. :-)
986+ -- Larry Wall in <199808170117.SAA19369@wall.org>
987+%
988+I dunno. Perhaps you should be happy that I have a policy of refraining
989+from grumbling about handicapped operating systems. :-)
990+ -- Larry Wall in <199808291719.KAA12244@wall.org>
991+%
992+Perl did not get where it is by ignoring psychological factors.
993+ -- Larry Wall in <199809031634.JAA26895@wall.org>
994+%
995+On the plus side, it's a lot easier in general to find /usr/include than cpp.
996+ -- Larry Wall in <199809041612.JAA05556@wall.org>
997+%
998+Psychotics are consistently inconsistent. The essence of sanity is
999+to be inconsistently inconsistent.
1000+ -- Larry Wall in <199809041918.MAA06850@wall.org>
1001+%
1002+That which hits the fan tends to get flung in all directions.
1003+ -- Larry Wall in <199809091801.LAA15194@wall.org>
1004+%
1005+If this were Ada, we'd simply doc it as "erroneous".
1006+ -- Larry Wall in <199809111734.KAA28296@wall.org>
1007+%
1008+So I'm thinking about ??, or !!, or //, or \\, or whatever. But I
1009+think I like ?? the best so far. Or the least worst.
1010+ -- Larry Wall in <199809150037.RAA17580@wall.org>
1011+%
1012+One operator is no big deal. That can be fixed in a jiffy.
1013+ -- Larry Wall in <199809151814.LAA22396@wall.org>
1014+%
1015+In Clintonese, that would be "You are free to infer that I was saying
1016+that." :-)
1017+ -- Larry Wall in <199809222305.QAA17574@wall.org>
1018+%
1019+Would you trust the linguistic intuitions of someone who has been
1020+studying Latin or Greek for three days?
1021+ -- Larry Wall in <199809230518.WAA19312@wall.org>
1022+%
1023+But I know what's important to me, and what isn't. And I think I know what
1024+people can get used to, and what they can even learn to like. (It just takes
1025+some people longer than others. :-)
1026+ -- Larry Wall in <199809230518.WAA19312@wall.org>
1027+%
1028+My arthritic pinkies are already starting to ache just thinking about ||||=.
1029+ -- Larry Wall in <199809251659.JAA06689@wall.org>
1030+%
1031+Orthogonality for orthogonality's sake is not something I'm keen on.
1032+ -- Larry Wall in <199809260112.SAA17178@wall.org>
1033+%
1034+Hmm, doubtful. The source code generally wasn't there when I needed it.
1035+ -- Larry Wall when asked if he learned Perl from the perl source
1036+%
1037+Must be a different Larry Wall. There are at least 137 of us in the U.S.
1038+ -- Larry Wall in <199809300035.RAA12495@wall.org>
1039+%
1040+Symmetry is overrated. Overrated is symmetry.
1041+ -- Larry Wall in <6vhq4r$a6i@kiev.wall.org>
1042+%
1043+That is a known bug in 5.00550. Either an upgrade or a downgrade will
1044+fix it.
1045+ -- Larry Wall in <6vu1vo$89c@kiev.wall.org>
1046+%
1047+That being said, I think we should immediately deprecate any string
1048+concatenation that combines "19" with "99". :-)
1049+ -- Larry Wall in <199811242002.MAA26850@wall.org>
1050+%
1051+The Golden Gate wasn't our fault either, but we still put a bridge across it.
1052+ -- Larry Wall in <199811242253.OAA28167@wall.org>
1053+%
1054+It should be illegal to yell "Y2K" in a crowded economy. :-)
1055+ -- Larry Wall in <199811242326.PAA28495@wall.org>
1056+%
1057+One thing I do understand is that people get scared when I start
1058+thinking out loud. :-)
1059+ -- Larry Wall in <20031212010945.GB29594@wall.org>
1060+%
1061+: No comment, since this is still hovering (see Larry's reply).
1062+
1063+Flutter, flutter.
1064+ -- Larry Wall in <20031213005325.GE7605@wall.org>
1065+%
1066+We don't have enough parallel universes to allow all uses of all
1067+junction types--in the absence of quantum computing the combinatorics
1068+are not in our favor...
1069+ -- Larry Wall in <20031213210102.GE18685@wall.org>
1070+%
1071+Accidental stacks considered harmful.
1072+ -- Larry Wall in <20031213202246.GD18685@wall.org>
1073+%
1074+I try not to confuse roles and traits in my own life. Being the Perl
1075+god is a role. Being a stubborn cuss is a trait. :-)
1076+ -- Larry Wall in <20031215021442.GA4012@wall.org>
1077+%
1078+And in the limiting case where the optimizer is completely broken because
1079+it's not implemented yet, we get to work around that too. Optionally...
1080+ -- Larry Wall in <20031217195433.GB31020@wall.org>
1081+%
1082+I think I'm happier with that. $rubyometer += 0.3 or so. :-)
1083+ -- Larry Wall in <20031219184224.GA19865@wall.org>
1084+%
1085+Then people who believe only in Interfaces can use the same
1086+underlying system-defined Roles without compromising their
1087+Java-bedeviled value system. :-)
1088+ -- Larry Wall in <20040217163036.GA30527@wall.org>
1089+%
1090+Well, some of that relates to the fact that last year I basically
1091+had to take half a year off to participate in various non-optional
1092+gastric revisions.
1093+ -- Larry Wall in <20040226192647.GA11151@wall.org>
1094+%
1095+Execute! (I hope that's the right word...)
1096+ -- Larry Wall in <20040302065954.GA12495@wall.org>
1097+%
1098+Yes, I'm a megalomaniac to think that I can set a better standard than
1099+the French... :-)
1100+ -- Larry Wall in <20040303205940.GA24064@wall.org>
1101+%
1102+"Best effort" is one of those phrases that doesn't mean what it means...
1103+ -- Larry Wall in <20040316024220.GB3367@wall.org>
1104+%
1105+I recommend not remaking my mistakes. Please make different mistakes. :-)
1106+ -- Larry Wall in <20040317192052.GA10645@wall.org>
1107+%
1108+Biologist: What's worse than being chased by a Velociraptor?
1109+Physicist: Obviously, being chased by an Acceloraptor.
1110+ -- Larry Wall in A12
1111+%
1112+Python's syntax succeeds in combining the mistakes of Lisp and Fortran.
1113+I do not contrue that as progress.
1114+ -- Larry Wall in <20040512161005.GB3902@wall.org>
1115+%
1116+Backtracking is a wonderful concept till you have to do it.
1117+ -- Larry Wall in <20040624192459.GE24759@wall.org>
1118+%
1119+But let me put this on the record: I specifically disrecommend use of
1120+grammar tweaks that will incite lynch mobs. You have been warned. :-)
1121+ -- Larry Wall in <20040709193138.GA21997@wall.org>
1122+%
1123+You might as well write your warning in Russian for all the good
1124+it'll do. :-)
1125+ -- Larry Wall in <20040710010945.GC32394@wall.org>
1126+%
1127+: I'm about to learn myself perl6 (after using perl5 for some time).
1128+
1129+I'm also trying to learn perl6 after using perl5 for some time. :-)
1130+ -- Larry Wall in <20040709202041.GA23451@wall.org>
1131+%
1132+I suppose that :byte could also take an argument to force a particular
1133+old-style (single-byte) locale, if we choose to support them, and are
1134+willing to take the consequences of Jarkko going postal. :-)
1135+ -- Larry Wall in <20040712184548.GA19937@wall.org>
1136+%
1137+One error message that would be of great benefit to novices is if we
1138+could guess where the missing brace is based on indentation. (But not
1139+*assuming* the missing brace, of course--this isn't Python... :-)
1140+ -- Larry Wall in <20040714172318.GA21069@wall.org>
1141+%
1142+Just don't anyone suggest that we indicate what's modified *syntactically*
1143+by placing the adverb directly under it... Yow. Two-dimensional programs.
1144+Reminds me of BF... Maybe we should just pass this suggestion on to
1145+Guido... :-) -- Larry Wall in <20040714181005.GB23830@wall.org>
1146+%
1147+Two-dimensional parsing is fun...
1148+ -- Larry Wall in <20040721231814.GA30798@wall.org>
1149+%
1150+It'd be really nice to find a way to explain continuations to people
1151+without inflicting the typical torturous explanations on people who
1152+aren't interested in brain pretzels.
1153+ -- Larry Wall
1154+%
1155+People can't see the ferment in my mind. What they see externally has to be
1156+filtered through my verbal apparatus, which is actually quite limited. I
1157+often think that my verbal processor is a slow interpreter. My wife's verbal
1158+processor is a fast compiler. -- Larry Wall, 8th State of the Onion
1159+%
1160+I don't have ADHD. I tend to perseverate and not get distracted when I
1161+should get distracted . . . My good friend Tom Christiansen, who does have
1162+ADHD, once said jokingly that I have "task-switching deficit" disorder.
1163+ -- Larry Wall, 8th State of the Onion
1164+%
1165+Anyway, please don't anyone take offense at my free associations. Even
1166+if they're true.
1167+ -- Larry Wall, 8th State of the Onion
1168+%
1169+You know how people are sometimes rude on Usenet or on a mailing list.
1170+Sometimes they'll write something that can only be taken as a deadly insult,
1171+and then they have the unmitigated gall to put a smiley face on it, as if
1172+that makes it all right. -- Larry Wall, 8th State of the Onion
1173+%
1174+Personally, Rorschach blots always look like butterflies to me. Or
1175+pelvis bones, I admit it.
1176+ -- Larry Wall, 8th State of the Onion
1177+%
1178+Another way to look at it is that screensavers are sort of a poor man's
1179+LSD, without the bad trips.
1180+ -- Larry Wall, 8th State of the Onion
1181+%
1182+I had really weird dreams on morphine [after having a tumor removed].
1183+Didn't like those screensavers. But a wonderful poem came to me -- it
1184+started out "In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure dome decree."
1185+But I can't remember the rest of it. -- Larry Wall, 8th State of the Onion
1186+%
1187+Maybe I'm a little bit crazy, but I can't decide if it's psychotic or
1188+neurotic. You know the difference, don't you? A psychotic thinks that
1189+2 + 2 = 5. A neurotic knows that 2 + 2 = 4, but it makes him nervous.
1190+ -- Larry Wall, 8th State of the Onion
1191+%
1192+The interesting thing was that while I was watching, they forked. You know,
1193+like BSD. One group of cuttlefish went off one way, and the other group went
1194+off another. Maybe they had a personality conflict. Maybe they had a fight
1195+over licensing. I dunno. -- Larry Wall, 8th State of the Onion
1196+%
1197+Are you going to bother to set up an unspoofable identity for every
1198+shirt in your closet?
1199+ -- Larry Wall, 8th State of the Onion
1200+%
1201+In any event, the real geeks will probably just have the screen
1202+tattooed on their chest. Or their stomachs. Teletubbies "R" us.
1203+ -- Larry Wall, 8th State of the Onion
1204+%
1205+We're a hospital of people helping each other, performing random acts
1206+of beauty for each other, even when no one is watching but God.
1207+ -- Larry Wall, 8th State of the Onion
1208+%
1209+These days I may be missing the bottom of my stomach, but I still have
1210+the bottom of my heart. So I would like to thank you from the bottom of
1211+my heart for being precisely who you are.
1212+ -- Larry Wall, 8th State of the Onion
1213+%
1214+The problem with a thesaurus is that it only gives you synonyms, not the
1215+word you really want. :-)
1216+ -- Larry Wall in <20041204185741.GA16358@wall.org>
1217+%
1218+It's kinda funny to watch the Parrot folks reinventing a similar scheme.
1219+(Er, no pun intended. Really!)
1220+ -- Larry Wall in <20041204193310.GC16358@wall.org>
1221+%
1222+ ...a Lazy has to be aware of when it is out of values, and when it should
1223+call into some meta-Lazy for more iterator values. And I suppose that
1224+meta-Lazy could in turn have a meta-meta-Lazy, which could have a
1225+meta-meta-meta-Lazy, and now my brane hurts. -- Larry Wall
1226+%
1227+Appearances to the contrary notwithstanding, I'm not trying to break
1228+Perl 5 constructs just for the heck of it.
1229+ -- Larry Wall in <20041206220054.GA10212@wall.org>
1230+%
1231+Well, hey, we'll have to leave some of the programming up to you. :-)
1232+ -- Larry Wall in <20050212184643.GA20059@wall.org>
1233+%
1234+Personally I'm looking forward to seeing what the .mathematica method
1235+spits out for a junction, but maybe I'll have to settle for a .apl
1236+method instead.
1237+ -- Larry Wall in <20050216071655.GC3909@wall.org>
1238+%
1239+It is my persistent belief (and fond hope) that theory and practice
1240+don't always have to pull in opposite directions.
1241+ -- Larry Wall in <20050216183411.GA24492@wall.org>
1242+%
1243+The human psyche is a mishmash of rules of thumb, and Einstein's thumb
1244+is only two of them.
1245+ -- Larry Wall in <20050217173835.GB26246@wall.org>
1246+%
1247+My assertion that we can do better with computer languages is a
1248+persistent belief and fond hope, but you'll note I don't actually
1249+claim to be either rational or right. Except when it's convenient. :-)
1250+ -- Larry Wall in <20050217173835.GB26246@wall.org>
1251+%
1252+How long before someone writes $x.ugly('Python'), I wonder...
1253+ -- Larry Wall in <20050217181027.GD26246@wall.org>
1254+%
1255+Bare S-expressions won't work in standard Perl, of course, unless you
1256+make "(foo" parse like some kind of reserved word for a known set of
1257+"foo". I'm sure if you did that someone would consider it perverse.
1258+ -- Larry Wall in <20050221193216.GE409@wall.org>
1259+%
1260+The semantics of alcohol don't change when you reach drinking age.
1261+Only the pragmatics change.
1262+ -- Larry Wall in <20050221191846.GD409@wall.org>
1263+%
1264+I think so--a pair can always pretend to be a very small hash.
1265+ -- Larry Wall in <20050221175223.GA409@wall.org>
1266+%
1267+ ...sometimes collections of stupid utterances can be rather clever. If
1268+my writings are ever published posthumously, they should probably be
1269+called "A Collection of Stupid Utterances", or some such... :-)
1270+ -- Larry Wall in <20050303163144.GA5235@wall.org>
1271+%
1272+But at some point you just give up and call it cheating, er,
1273+I mean, AOP. :-)
1274+ -- Larry Wall in <20050307173849.GA16558@wall.org>
1275+%
1276+I'm not consistent about consistency, you see, except when I am...
1277+And I try to believe six foolish consistencies before breakfast each day. :-)
1278+ -- Larry Wall in <20050307164019.GA14585@wall.org>
1279+%
1280+Uh, yeah. Obviously, 11 pm is still to early in the day for me...
1281+ -- Larry Wall in <20050308071002.GA1069@wall.org>
1282+%
1283+I have no opinion on its suitability for any particular task. I'm just
1284+the language designer--my job is to shoot you in the foot and make you
1285+think you did it to yourself. :-)
1286+ -- Larry Wall in <20050309170804.GA22973@wall.org>
1287+%
1288+That's...sick... I love it. *Please* don't tell Damian.
1289+ -- Larry Wall in <20050309180300.GF22973@wall.org>
1290+%
1291+Sex is fun, but it probably doesn't solve all your problems.
1292+ -- Larry Wall in <20050309192903.GA27250@wall.org>
1293+%
1294+You have the irritating habit of asking good questions I don't have
1295+an easy answer for. Please don't stop.
1296+ -- Larry Wall in <20050314165932.GA12577@wall.org>
1297+%
1298+But maybe we could try to set some slushiness milestones on the road to
1299+hell freezing over...
1300+ -- Larry Wall in <20050314165932.GA12577@wall.org>
1301+%
1302+Oh, right--I'd better learn to read Perl 6 one of these days. :-)
1303+ -- Larry Wall in <20050316201700.GB31121@wall.org>
1304+%
1305+That's what Sleepy Brain says. But Coffee Brain despises Sleepy Brain. :-)
1306+ -- Larry Wall in <20050317164126.GA28021@wall.org>
1307+%
1308+fail("Language designer not persuaded"); # :-)
1309+ -- Larry Wall in <20050327054109.GC25664@wall.org>
1310+%
1311+If I thought that I could design a language that will never disappoint
1312+anyone, I'd be a lot stupider than I already think I am, I think.
1313+ -- Larry Wall in <20050328202308.GA21733@wall.org>
1314+%
1315+And you can still put in all that cruft if you want to. You can even
1316+force yourself to have to do it. But to me, it feels a bit like slavery,
1317+so I'm still looking for a land flowing with milk and honey, even if
1318+there are a few giants in it. -- Larry Wall
1319+%
1320+As long as "we" includes "you", that's fine by "me". :-)
1321+ -- Larry Wall in <20050330171201.GA22184@wall.org>
1322+%
1323+Clear conceptual splits often hide false dichotomies.
1324+ -- Larry Wall in <20050330195322.GB22184@wall.org>
1325+%
1326+Birds naturally prefer early binding to late binding; worms will
1327+naturally disagree. Rolling stones gather no type constraints.
1328+ -- Larry Wall in <20050330195322.GB22184@wall.org>
1329+%
1330+Hmm, where there's a way, there's a will, I guess.
1331+ -- Larry Wall in <20050413040733.GA5986@wall.org>
1332+%
1333+It's not designed to make people happy who want to confuse those
1334+issues. We have macros for that.
1335+ -- Larry Wall in <20050419155213.GC19507@wall.org>
1336+%
1337+Is that enough muddy thinking for one morning?
1338+ -- Larry Wall in <20050419155213.GC19507@wall.org>
1339+%
1340+It seems like a sane thing to me, but that's a rather low standard.
1341+ -- Larry Wall in <20050419150023.GA19507@wall.org>
1342+%
1343+: I hope I never have to design my own language. I would be schizophrenic
1344+: before the day ends.
1345+That's backwards. You have to be schizophrenic before the day starts.
1346+ -- Larry Wall in <20050419150023.GA19507@wall.org>
1347+%
1348+Hmm. What would it mean to goto a class?
1349+ -- Larry Wall in <20050420185445.GC766@wall.org>
1350+%
1351+In any event (no pun intended), I've always wondered how it is you
1352+can "kill" a process with a SIGCONT. As long as we're fixing everything
1353+else, maybe we can fix Unix too. :-)
1354+ -- Larry Wall in <20050420171135.GD29671@wall.org>
1355+%
1356+Or I suppose we could always recontextualize the meaning of "is"
1357+instead. There is prior art...
1358+ -- Larry Wall in <20050420192727.GF766@wall.org>
1359+%
1360+Dude, nowadays we're trying to make Perl 6 more Unicode aware, not
1361+less; /usr/share/dict/words is so, like, monocultural, and stuff.
1362+ -- Larry Wall in <20050420194147.GH766@wall.org>
1363+%
1364+Anything is *possible* in PUGS. :-)
1365+ -- Larry Wall in <20050420205201.GD3971@wall.org>
1366+%
1367+sub eval_C ($proggie) { CGrammar.top($proggie).compile.link.run.dump.gdb }
1368+ -- Larry Wall in <20050420220706.GA6265@wall.org>
1369+%
1370+It might do what you mean. Personally, I would never mean that if I
1371+could help it. :-)
1372+ -- Larry Wall in <20050421225012.GA12790@wall.org>
1373+%
1374+But I'm sure some will argue that's too subtle. (Hi, @Larry<Damian>.)
1375+ -- Larry Wall in <20050423013102.GA21941@wall.org>
1376+%
1377+We're still discussing it on @Larry, but I think we can make that work.
1378+ -- Larry Wall in <20050503004247.GA7342@wall.org>
1379+%
1380+Yes, it's a slippery slope. No, we are not sliding all the way down
1381+it. And it's just as easy to slide up this slope as well as down, and
1382+end up with Lisp rather than APL. Neither extreme is healthy.
1383+ -- Larry Wall in <20050504165510.GB7407@wall.org>
1384+%
1385+Almost nothing in the design of Perl 6 is there for a single purpose.
1386+ -- Larry Wall in <20050504165510.GB7407@wall.org>
1387+%
1388+I think a p6explain would be a rather popular program.
1389+ -- Larry Wall in <20050505050259.GA25468@wall.org>
1390+%
1391+Every day it gets a little harder to distinguish my senility from
1392+my insanity...
1393+ -- Larry Wall in <20050507200008.GC27695@wall.org>
1394+%
1395+The compiler is not immutable; it is a means to an end.
1396+And the end I am imagining is one that I cannot imagine.
1397+ -- Larry Wall in <20050514164301.GA13727@wall.org>
1398+%
1399+There's more than one method to our madness.
1400+ -- Larry Wall in <20050614192549.GB17779@wall.org>
1401+%
1402+The stupid people are the ones proposing to outlaw stupidity. :-)
1403+ -- Larry Wall in <20050708031759.GB3727@wall.org>
1404+%
1405+Of course, if we make the MMD rules sufficiently complicated, we'll just have
1406+to make the warning spit out a spreadsheet to show the calculations. Then we
1407+hide all that behind an interview process, just like all our wonderful tax
1408+preparation software... -- Larry Wall in <20050708185704.GA12164@wall.org>
1409+%
1410+My suggestion would be to assume that the Apocalypses are primarily
1411+intended to be entertaining rather than factual. :-)
1412+ -- Larry Wall in <20050809221810.GA31369@wall.org>
1413+%
1414+Wheelbarrow is a scavenger. That is to say, he's a sysadmin.
1415+ -- Larry Wall in The State of the Onion 9
1416+%