My Favorite Holy War is:

[Petruchio]

*nix vs. Windows

 187/32%

Vi vs. Emacs

 145/25%

Perl vs. Python

 39/7%

Gnome vs. KDE

 18/3%

Big Endian vs. Little Endian

 6/1%

K&R vs. Allman

 8/1%

Tabs vs. Spaces

 49/8%

Cuddled vs. Uncuddled

 23/4%

Static vs. Dynamic

 20/3%

Mark-and-Sweep vs. Refcounting

 4/1%

$language is really OO vs. No, it isn't

 26/4%

...waged against the authors of polls with too few choices.

 54/9%

579 total votes

[diotalevi]

My favorite holy war isn't represented: $|++ vs $| = 1.

[bunnyman]

... vs. use IO::File; autoflush STDOUT 1;

[thelenm]

You must mean "My FavoUrite Holy War". :-)

-- Mike

--
XML::Simpler does not require XML::Parser or a SAX parser. It does require File::Slurp.
-- grantm, perldoc XML::Simpler

[Preceptor]

How about 'American is just a corrupted form of English vs. English is what Americans speak and it's the definitive version'.

or
Should the parenthesis be on the next line, or the same line, and should they be indented with the parent, or the child? (I seriously recall a big argument about this at a place i used to work)

[CombatSquirrel]

Or, when often talking to both Americans and Britons:
British English is English, American English is English with American accent
vs.
American English is English, British English is English with British accent

---

Entropy is the tendency of everything going to hell.

[porqui]

Where you guys get this carp?
English is what they talk in England.
American is what we talk here in America!
and Strine is what they talk in Australia.
Everyone else is just flappin they jaws.

[Drgan]

I just love arguing with the instructors over at ITT about Unix vs Windows. It turns out that ITT Tech is pro-Microsoft; the instructors are misinformed about certain functionalities of the system's overall perforamnce and what it can actually do. For some odd reason their impression about Linux is that it cannot run a network as well as Micsoft Servers and both Novell and Linux are going to go the way of the dinosaur. Personally, I use FreeBSD and I'm very happy with it. I've even started to teach my fiance how to use it.

[rir]

Cuddled vs. uncuddled.

Oh, you're talking about coding. Never mind!

[fraktalisman]

*nix vs. Windows is the most annoying one when done by people who didn't contribute to any of those operating systems.
Pragmatism rules! I have a Linux router, a Linux file server and a bunch of Windows workstations from 98 to XP where perl programming, flash design and more is done.

[ybiC]

An authoritative opinion on the subject.
  cheers,
  ybiC

  striving toward Perl Adept
  (it's pronounced "why-bick")

[blue_cowdawg]

*nix vs. Windows is the most annoying one when done by people who didn't contribute to any of those operating systems.

I don't have to have made the beer to have appreciation for the taste of a good beer over the taste of a bad one. Life is too short to drink skunky beer.

Considering all the hours I have spent generating reports over the last couple of weeks on the infected hosts on the network from the last batch of worms and other cybernetic beasties, I really appreciate my Linux workstation and the fact that I can run my WinBloze applications (i.e. Microsoft Office) under CrossOver for Windows with little to no fear of catching something nasty.

And I don't generally get into religous wars over it. This is as pragmatic as it gets. Right tool for the job has been my mantra for the last 20+ years I've been in the biz.

---

Peter @ Berghold . Net

Sieze the cow! Bite the day!

Nobody expects the Perl inquisition!

Test the code? We don't need to test no stinkin' code!
All code posted here is as is where is unless otherwise stated.

Brewer of Belgian style Ales

[PodMaster]

Scotch V. Bourbon ;)
I abhore all other religious wars, especially geek related ones (like vi V. emacs ) and religion related ones.

MJD says "you can't just make shit up and expect the computer to know what you mean, retardo!"

I run a Win32 PPM repository for perl 5.6.x and 5.8.x -- I take requests (README).

** The third rule of perl club is a statement of fact: pod is sexy.

[BazB]

Whisky/Whiskey vs Scotch. Americanisms vs Proper British Spellings :-)

---

If the information in this post is inaccurate, or just plain wrong, don't just downvote - please post explaining what's wrong.
That way everyone learns.

[davis]

Actually, I think "whisky" is for Scotch, whereas "whiskey" is how the Irish spell it. The difference between the two is something to do with how the barley's malted IIRC. The difference was explained on a tour of the Jameson distillery in Dublin a while ago, and could well be on their website, but those of us without JavaScript and Flash wouldn't be able to find it :-)
Woo. 128th Post


davis
It's not easy to juggle a pregnant wife and a troubled child, but somehow I managed to fit in eight hours of TV a day.

[rinceWind]

I would vote for Open Source versus Proprietary

I'm fighting a few battles at $Corporate, trying to get Open Source code to be allowed to be used at all.

--
I'm Not Just Another Perl Hacker

[tbone1]

I voted vi-emacs; in fact, I inadvertently brought this flamewar to a Mac website while discussing the command line for OS X.

However, if you really wanted to see a holy war, you needed to wear an Indianapolis Colts jersery in Baltimore, back before Baltimore stole the Browns from Cleveland and renamed them the Ravens. It was one of the few times I've felt like my life was in danger, and I used to play in blues bars.


--
tbone1
Ain't enough 'O's in 'stoopid' to describe that guy.
- Dave "the King" Wilson

[htoug]

Where's the All of the above option?

That would be my choice - you can't just choose one and leave out all the other nice religious wars - that would be terribly unfair!

My favourite religious war: "Religious war"!

[Discipulus]

I hate holy wars !!!!

but my TRUE and REALLY one is Perl vs VBScript+C#+Java (see Discipulus)

I voted for the first one because I work in win2k domain and administrating several MS machine is like to be a cow-boy
Lor*

[davido]

Definately little endian.... and big Gnomes. Makes for a better view.

Dave

"If I had my life to do over again, I'd be a plumber." -- Albert Einstein

[gwhite]

Atari vs Apple????

g_White

[Steve_p]

You arrogant ass! Forget about those two and get a Commodore-64! ;)

[Plato]

Its probably a bit dated now, but one of my first (& favourtite) holy wars was the Amiga Versus the Atari ST. Of course, I had an Amiga, 'cause it kicked @ss! The only thing the Atari had going for it was a built-in midi interface. The Amiga though had more colors available AND 3 stereo channels as far as I remember. Brilliant machine!

Plato.

N.B. my very first holy war was the ZX spectrum Versus commodore 64... kinda lost that one cause C64 turned out to be a bit better, still loved the old spectrum though!

[ajdelore]

In my day it was PC vs. Amiga... and the Amiga did kick ass, although I would never have admitted it. I thought my Turbo XT (8mhz, 640K RAM, 30 meg disk, 16-color graphics) was the greatest. :)

</ajdelore>

[davis]

The only thing the Atari had going for it was a built-in midi interface

That and the fact that its CPU was clocked .7MHz higher :-). The number of colou?rs argument depended upon which ST you compared it to.

Ah, memories. Yes, *sniff*, I was involved in those holy wars. Can you guess which side I was on? :-).


davis
It's not easy to juggle a pregnant wife and a troubled child, but somehow I managed to fit in eight hours of TV a day.

[martymart]

Was it the losing side?? ;-)
I still see some amigas around today, and they're still great little machines, you never heard of atari toasters creating the graphics for Babylon 5, or other movies. Good old Amiga did kick @tari @ss!!

Martymart

[CombatSquirrel]

Well, you already got "$language is really OO vs. No, it isn't", but you're missing my favourite: "procedural vs. OO"

• Why on earth are you doing this with OOP?
• It's simpler for the user and more obvious.
• Not it's not. And pure subs are a lot faster too.
• ...

CombatSquirrel.

---

Entropy is the tendency of everything going to hell.

[Chady]

$language is really OO vs. No, it isn't
followed by posts of "I agree"

---

He who asks will be a fool for five minutes, but he who doesn't ask will remain a fool for life.

Chady | http://chady.net/

[DentArthurDent]

I agree! :-)

[martymart]

Well, for me it used to be Mac Versus Windows....
Then that became Navigator Versus Explorer....
*nix Versus Windows seems to be the next obvious choice....

Martymart

Damn... I used to love working on those old Macs, very first Perl script was on a Mac... Happy Memories

[tcf22]

What about Tastes Great vs. Less Filling.

I love the catfights.

[chacham]

I can't beer (bear) that one.

[vili]

I wish I had more than one choice to make. I voted vi vs. emacs
In my oppinion, there is no such war as *nix vs. windows. There is just no base to compare
It's more like functionality vs. user friendliness. Besides there's nothing holy about windows :)
Escape+Meta+Alt+Control+Shift = EMACS
Cheers,
Vi li

[jryan]

The *nix vs windows is a pretty pointless war, IMHO, especially when one could have both functionality *and* user friendliness by getting a Mac. ;)

[Anonymous Monk]

Does this legendary Mac user-friendliness apply to iMacs? I ask because other than Mac classics they're the only macs I've used for more than an hour and I found them to be less than productive (to put it nicely).

[BrowserUk]

No contest. Your opinion -v- mine, of course!

---

Examine what is said, not who speaks.
"Efficiency is intelligent laziness." -David Dunham
"When I'm working on a problem, I never think about beauty. I think only how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong." -Richard Buckminster Fuller
If I understand your problem, I can solve it! Of course, the same can be said for you.

[woolfy]

Over 10 years ago I started a holy war on CompuServe, which resulted in a lot of threads, with (for that time) record sizes. And it still is a bit of a holy war for me:

What is guilty of more murder, death, starvation, mutilation and damage: religion or politics?

My answer was and still is: religion is more guilty.
My solution: knowledge is better than beliefs (but please don't forget we're mere humans, flawed and emotional).

With that discussion, I made mortal enemies and life-long friends, to this very day. And heck, it was rough but more civilized than would be possible on usenet.

But that's another holy war: moderated vs. unmoderated.

(Corrected spelling error)

[PodMaster]

Spelling: s/believes/beliefs/;
My idea (well not originally): s/knowledge/ideas/; meaning ideas are better than religionbeliefs. You can change an idea (and knowledge is hard to come by).
As for which is more guilty? I'd say religion and politics (there ain't no difference between the two).

MJD says "you can't just make shit up and expect the computer to know what you mean, retardo!"

I run a Win32 PPM repository for perl 5.6.x and 5.8.x -- I take requests (README).

** The third rule of perl club is a statement of fact: pod is sexy.

[thelenm]

Yep, my favorite holy wars are those where at least I know I'm right. Wait, that's all of them!

-- Mike

--
XML::Simpler does not require XML::Parser or a SAX parser. It does require File::Slurp.
-- grantm, perldoc XML::Simpler

[LanceDeeply]

My favorite is Interpeted vs Compiled! Is that what's implied by Static vs Dynamic?

[DrHyde]

$eight_bit_of_choice vs @all_others is a constant irritation in comp.sys.amstrad.8bit. It's just about the only thing that makes me ignore whole threads in there.

[ignatz]

XEmacs vs. Emacs was always my favorite.

()-()             
 \"/              
  `              

[menolly]

I have to pick?!? 'nix (esp. OSX), vi, Perl, uncuddled :)

[tbone1]

Don't pick; it will never heal.


--
tbone1
Ain't enough 'O's in 'stoopid' to describe that guy.
- Dave "the King" Wilson

[rob_au]

<slashdot>I'm not a zealot, you insensitive clod!</slashdot>

Good poll Petruchio!

 

perl -le "print+unpack'N',pack'B32','00000000000000000000001001111111'"

[Aristotle]

Recently overheard on the CB:
• Master, does Emacs have the Buddha nature?
• Why not, it has everything else!
PS.: Where's the "Holy vs War" option?

Makeshifts last the longest.

[Mago]

Chess: Black vs. White ...

Info: Analysts vs. Programmers ...

Star War: Yoda vs. Dookan ...

Matrix: Neo vs Agent Smith ...

OS: Linus Torvalds vs. Bill Gates ...

[menolly]

<shame cause='knowing this'>That's Dooku, not Dookan </shame>

[Mago]

OK ! DOOKU !

in Brazil: Dookan !

[vek]

In England in the 80s I recall Sinclair Spectrum vs Commodore 64 was quite a decent Holy War.

-- vek --

[bronto]

The real, BIG, only war is *NIX vs Windows; the other options are just internal disputes :-)

Ciao!
--bronto

---

The very nature of Perl to be like natural language--inconsistant and full of dwim and special cases--makes it impossible to know it all without simply memorizing the documentation (which is not complete or totally correct anyway).
--John M. Dlugosz

[jonadab]

The real, BIG, only war is *NIX vs Windows; the other options are just internal disputes

Unix? Windows? If all your code is portable Perl, and everything else you do is in Emacs, Mozilla, or the Gimp, what difference does it make? The operating system is a commodity. I switched from Win9x to Linux because I was tired of the daily crashing, but if I'd been using WinXP (which wasn't available yet at the time) I might not have needed to switch. If BeOS had had certain key features (notably, the ability to globally set colour preferences and have all GUI apps follow them) I might still be using that.

Don't get me wrong; I like playing with different OSes, and Unix is cool and all that, but I don't think which OS you use is really the critical issue (at least, on the desktop; servers are another matter). The key point is that with cross-platform apps it doesn't *matter* which OS you use; you're free to switch on a whim, try out a different OS for a week or a month, then if you change your mind switch back or try another...

So the long and short of it is that I'm not interested in having a holy war over which OS to use. And before you start talking about OS monopolies locking everybody in, that wouldn't happen if we all used file formats that are either used by many different apps (e.g., png, zip) or by cross-platform apps (e.g., xcf, sxw). That holds true regardless of platform, and I'm no more interested in single-app data formats used by *nix-only apps than the ones for Win-only apps. (This is one reason the recent news about KOffice is so great; I personally was unwilling to use KOffice when it had its own file formats, because the data would be inaccessible on other platforms. Once they switch to the OO.o formats, the data will be accessible and I can consider KOffice as a viable option.)

Windows versus Unix? Bah, that's a distraction, nothing more. The real war is cross-platform versus locked-in.

---

$;=sub{$/};@;=map{my($a,$b)=($_,$;);$;=sub{$a.$b->()}}
split//,".rekcah lreP rehtona tsuJ";$\=$ ;->();print$/

[agentv]

...waged against the authors/too few choices -- would include Highland vs. Islay.

...All the world looks like -well- all the world, when your hammer is Perl.
---v

[ackme]

Highland vs. Islay? Same as Windows vs. *nix. The first is user friendly, the second is funky AND functional.

[Rex(Wrecks)]

Me vs. Holy War Zealots

Use what you like, use the right tools for the job. If you dislike it, at least learn enough about it to argue intelligently. The amount of times I have had to debunk a "But Windows can't..." statement from an anti-MS zealot is ridiculous.

"Nothing is sure but death and taxes" I say combine the two and its death to all taxes!

[blue_cowdawg]

Use what you like, use the right tools for the job.

Exactly the mantra I have used over the last 20 years reguardless of VI <-> EMACS, DOS/Win16/Win32 <-> *NIX, PC <-> MAC or whatever. Everything has its place and everything has the right use.

I sure wouldn't want to try and do stuff that a mainframe does well on a PIII running *NIX or Windows but on the other hand I think a mainframe is going to be a poor fit on my desk.

---

Peter L. Berghold -- Unix Professional Peter at Berghold dot Net
	Dog trainer, dog agility exhibitor, brewer of fine Belgian style ales. Happiness is a warm, tired, contented dog curled up at your side and a good Belgian ale in your chalice.

[zakzebrowski]

Java vs perl. <Voice style="announcer">And in a knockout punch, perl defeats java...</voice>

----
Zak

[LameNerd]

I really don't care what text editor people use, but I did find this to be really funny.

[Flame]

My fave is Mac vs IBM/PC



---




My code doesn't have bugs, it just develops random features.

Flame ~ Lead Programmer: GMS (DOWN) | GMS (DOWN)

[Beatnik]

What?!? No Perl vs PHP??

Greetz
Beatnik
... I'm belgian but I don't play one on TV.

[LordWeber]

[allolex]

Chomskyism vs. Functionalism, obviously ;)

--
Allolex

[wufnik]

chomskyism vs behaviourism is also spectacular.

tho short lived...

[allolex]

Yes, definitely short-lived. Skinner and Behaviorism were a dirty smudge on the ground after Chomsky got done with them. (You might say he did an Evelyn Waugh on them ;) )

--
Allolex

[poqui]

My *favorite* holy war is *nix vs. Windows,
but the Stupidest one I remember was at a telecomm and was over "Spaces vs. Tabs" for formatting C code!!!!!!

Also, just for the telephony guys back at MultiColoredIdiots: "ATM versus Extend IP"

[blue_cowdawg]

You totally forgot one of the most important ones! Budweiser/Bud Lite, Miller/Miller Lite, Coors/Coors Lite or {fill in the megaswill of choice} vs. real beer!

Myself I prefer a really good stout or Belgian Ale!

---

Peter @ Berghold . Net

Sieze the cow! Bite the day!

Nobody expects the Perl inquisition!

Test the code? We don't need to test no stinkin' code!
All code posted here is as is where is unless otherwise stated.

Brewer of Belgian style Ales

[Jenda]

The holly war is the only real Budweiser vs. the Anheuser Bush catpiss.

[chanio]

Who knew that NIX was an expression used to despise something during 1900's?

I wouldn't consider it like that. But I see no sense in trying to compare LINUX with Windows.

I appreciate what an ammount of cash can do with software.

(money talks and shit walks)

But, "Money can't buy me love" :) ...

[malaga]

Holy vs War

[Tosco]

Spy x Spy !

[jaubertmoniker]

I'm pretty partial to the Crusades, myself.

[Anonymous Monk]

i think bsd vs linux is the ultimate holy war.

[kko]

well, all I can say is: vi suxx0r5!