The trouble with being quoted a lot is that it makes other people think you're quoting yourself when in fact you're merely repeating yourself. Larry Wall More Quotes by Larry Wall More Quotes From Larry Wall Younger hackers are hard to classify. They're probably just as diverse as the old hackers are. We're all over the map. Larry Wall hackers diverse maps Some of modern engineering is necessary to good art. But I think of myself is a cultural artist. Larry Wall engineering art thinking The problems that I really like to solve are our cultural problems. Larry Wall solve problem The world has become a larger place. The universe has been expanding, and Perl's been expanding along with the universe. Larry Wall perl expanding world Doing linear scans over an associative array is like trying to club someone to death with a loaded Uzi. Larry Wall clubs technology trying To be a good artist, you have to serve the work of art and allow it to be what it is supposed to be. Larry Wall supposed-to-be artist art 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 routine definitions would-be The choice of approaches could be made the responsibility of the programmer. Larry Wall choices responsibility made There ain't nothin' in this world that's worth being a snot over. Larry Wall this-world world 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 ifs way It's easy to solve the halting problem with a shotgun. Larry Wall shotguns problem easy I'd make people say 'use Fork;' if I thought I could get away with it. Larry Wall forks use people I'm afraid my gut level reaction is basically, proceed is cute, but cute doesn't cut it in the emergency room. Larry Wall levels cutting cute One operator is no big deal. That can be fixed in a jiffy. Larry Wall fixed deals bigs My arthritic pinkies are already starting to ache just thinking about ||||=. Larry Wall ache starting thinking Perl is designed to give you several ways to do anything, so consider picking the most readable one. Larry Wall computer giving way Symmetry is overrated. Overrated is symmetry. Larry Wall overrated symmetry In general, they do what you want, unless you want consistency. Larry Wall consistency computer want Now, I'm not the only language designer with irrationalities. You can think of some languages to go with some of these things. Larry Wall designer language thinking But you have to allow a little for the desire to evangelize when you think you have good news. Larry Wall news desire thinking
