Larry Wall quotes

Real programmers can write assembly code in any language. (Larry Wall)
Doing linear scans over an associative array is like trying to club someone to death with a loaded Uzi. View quote
Larry Wall
The three chief virtues of a programmer are: Laziness, Impatience and Hubris. View quote
Larry Wall
The Harvard Law states: Under controlled conditions of light, temperature, humidity, and nutrition, the organism will do as it damn well pleases. View quote
Larry Wall
We all agree on the necessity of compromise. We just can't agree on when it's necessary to compromise. View quote
Larry Wall
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. View quote
Larry Wall
Just don't create a file called -rf. View quote
Larry Wall
To ordinary folks, conversion is not always automatic. It's something that may or may not require explicit assistance. See Billy Graham. View quote
Larry Wall
Call me bored, but don't call me boring. View quote
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? View quote
Larry Wall
I think it's a new feature. Don't tell anyone it was an accident. (Larry Wall)
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. View quote
Larry Wall
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. View quote
Larry Wall
Though I'll admit readability suffers slightly... View quote
Larry Wall
...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. View quote
Larry Wall
Symmetry is overrated. Overrated is symmetry. View quote
Larry Wall
The computer should be doing the hard work. That's what it's paid to do, after all. View quote
Larry Wall
Let's say the docs present a simplified view of reality... View quote
Larry Wall
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. View quote
Larry Wall
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. View quote
Larry Wall
It's certainly easy to calculate the average attendance for Perl conferences. (Larry Wall)
I don't like this official/unofficial distinction. It sound, er, officious. View quote
Larry Wall
That being said, I think we should immediately deprecate any string concatenation that combines '19' with '99. View quote
Larry Wall
If you write something wrong enough, I'll be glad to make up a new witticism just for you. View quote
Larry Wall
Well, you know, Hubbard had a bunch of people sworn to commit suicide when he died. So of course he never officially died... View quote
Larry Wall