note
talexb
<ul><i>While I never write a program without strict and warnings because I find it harder, some people think those pragmas are a waste of time for a one-off program.</i></ul>
<p>This quote should be framed.</p>
<p>I talked to two people about code craft recently; one asked why I would <c>use strict</c> in a script, and another asked if it was really necessary to close a file.</p>
<p>About using <c>strict</c>, I said it made about as much sense as wearing a seat belt -- skip it at your own risk. About not explicitly closing filehandles, I said that I always 1. open the file (and always with <c>or die</c> afterwards), 2. close the file, and 3. go back up to just after the open statement and do whatever it was I was going to do with the file.</p>
<p>Being lazy can be a good thing, but too much laziness can be a bad thing. It can be embarrassing spending 20 minutes chasing down a problem in a one-liner that you could have solved right away if you'd just used <c>strict</c>.</p>
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<p>Alex / [talexb] / Toronto</p>
<p><small>"<a alt="GrokLaw, by Pamela Jones" href="http://www.groklaw.net">Groklaw</a> is the open-source mentality applied to legal research" ~ Linus Torvalds</small></p>
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