Larry Wall famous quotes

Most of you are familiar with the virtues of a programmer. There are three, of course: laziness, impatience, and hubris.
-- Larry Wall

#Technology #Three #Laziness

The problem with using C++ ... is that there's already a strong tendency in the language to require you to know everything before you can do anything.
-- Larry Wall

#Strong #Language #Problem

When they first built the University of California at Irvine they just put the buildings in. They did not put any sidewalks, they just planted grass. The next year, they came back and put the sidewalks where the trails were in the grass. Perl is just that kind of language. It is not designed from first principles. Perl is those sidewalks in the grass.
-- Larry Wall

#California #Years #Next Year

True greatness is measured by how much freedom you give to others, not by how much you can coerce others to do what you want.
-- Larry Wall

#Inspiring #Greatness #Giving

You can’t change the past. You can’t even change the future, in the sense that you can only change the present one moment at a time, stubbornly, until the future unwinds itself into the stories of our lives.
-- Larry Wall

#Past #Stories #Moments

Lisp has all the visual appeal of oatmeal with fingernail clippings mixed in.
-- Larry Wall

#Oatmeal #Computer #Fingernails

Real programmers can write assembly code in any language.
-- Larry Wall

#Real #Writing #Technology

I think it's a new feature. Don't tell anyone it was an accident.
-- Larry Wall

#Thinking #Requirements #Accidents

The Harvard Law states: Under controlled conditions of light, temperature, humidity, and nutrition, the organism will do as it damn well pleases.
-- Larry Wall

#Light #Law #Temperature

Computer language design is just like a stroll in the park. Jurassic Park, that is.
-- Larry Wall

#Technology #Jurassic Park #Design

One operator is no big deal. That can be fixed in a jiffy.
-- Larry Wall

#Bigs #Fixed #Deals

My arthritic pinkies are already starting to ache just thinking about ||||=.
-- Larry Wall

#Thinking #Starting #Ache

That being said, I think we should immediately deprecate any string concatenation that combines '19' with '99'.
-- Larry Wall

#Thinking #Should #Strings

If you're going to define a shortcut, then make it the base [sic] darn shortcut you can.
-- Larry Wall

#Shortcuts

Accidental stacks considered harmful.
-- Larry Wall

Well, you can implement a Perl peek() with unpack('P',...). Once you have that, there's only security through obscurity.
-- Larry Wall

#Obscurity #Wells #Security

Must be a different Larry Wall. There are at least 137 of us in the U.S.
-- Larry Wall

#Wall #Different

Orthogonality for orthogonality's sake is not something I'm keen on.
-- Larry Wall

#Sake

I'm afraid my gut level reaction is basically, proceed is cute, but cute doesn't cut it in the emergency room.
-- Larry Wall

#Cute #Cutting #Levels

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

#Way

I wouldn't ever write the full sentence myself, but then, I never use goto either.
-- Larry Wall

#Writing #Use #Sentences

Are you perchance running on a 64-bit machine?
-- Larry Wall

#Running #Machines

It is easier to port a shell than a shell script.
-- Larry Wall

#Shells #Scripts #Easier

Laziness is a programmers main virtue.
-- Larry Wall

#Inspiring #Laziness #Virtue

Perhaps you should compile your Perl with long doubles one of these megaseconds.
-- Larry Wall

#Long #Should

I note that the Python folks still think they like JPython. I wonder how long that will last?
-- Larry Wall

#Thinking #Python #Long

Maybe we should take a clue from FTP and put in an option like 'print hash marks on every 1024 iterations'.
-- Larry Wall

#Clue #Hash #Should

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

#Thinking #People #Arms

The young think they are immortal, and are determined to prove otherwise.
-- Larry Wall

#Thinking #Determined #Computer

I don't believe I've ever cuddled my elses.
-- Larry Wall

#Believe

Not that I have anything much against redundancy. But I said that already.
-- Larry Wall

#Said #Redundancy

(To someone at New York University) If you consistently take an antagonistic approach, however, people are going to start thinking you're from New York.
-- Larry Wall

#New York #Thinking #People

A 'goto' in Perl falls into the category of hard things that should be possible, not easy things that should be easy.
-- Larry Wall

#Fall #Easy #Should

Sometimes I wish I could put an expiration date on my quotes.
-- Larry Wall

#Wish #Computer #Sometimes

The only reason [not to use] perl is that some sysadmins don't allow software that they didn't pay for. By all means, let them send me money if it makes them feel better.
-- Larry Wall

#Mean #Feel Better #Use

I think I'll side with the pissheads on this one.
-- Larry Wall

#Thinking #Sides #Computer

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

#Thinking #People #Facts

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

#Air #Smell #Strange

You need to go and find someone to teach you the rudiments of irrational discourse.
-- Larry Wall

#Needs #Computer #Irrational

Perl programming is an *empirical* science!
-- Larry Wall

#Programming

Let's say the docs present a simplified view of reality...
-- Larry Wall

#Reality #Views #Computer

A good messenger expects to get shot.
-- Larry Wall

#Messengers #Computer #Shots

I think I'm likely to be certified before Perl is...
-- Larry Wall

#Thinking #Computer

I'm sorry, but you just made me lose my sense of humor, which is deeply regrettable.
-- Larry Wall

#Sorry #Sense Of Humor #Computer

At many levels, Perl is a 'diagonal' language.
-- Larry Wall

#Levels #Language #Diagonal

Any false value is gonna be fairly boring in Perl, mathematicians notwithstanding.
-- Larry Wall

#Boring #Mathematician #Values

I won't mention any names, because I don't want to get sun4's into trouble...
-- Larry Wall

#Names #Want #Trouble

Besides, REAL computers have a rename() system call.
-- Larry Wall

#Real #Computer

[Boxed] Multiple bouncing balls in a box are a metaphor for community. Notice how the escaping balls explode. This is what happens to people who move from Perl to Ruby .
-- Larry Wall

#Moving #Escaping #People

Not that I'm against sneaking some notions into people's heads upon occasion. (Or blasting them in outright.
-- Larry Wall

#People #Notion #Occasions

Perhaps I'm missing the gene for making enemies.
-- Larry Wall

#Missing #Enemy #Genes

The whole intent of Perl 5's module system was to encourage the growth of Perl culture rather than the Perl core.
-- Larry Wall

#Growth #Culture

If you write something wrong enough, I'll be glad to make up a new witticism just for you.
-- Larry Wall

#Writing #Enough #Glad

We are so Post-Modern that we don't realize how Post-Modern we are anymore.
-- Larry Wall

#Realizing #Modern