Re: Legible or Obfuscated?

[tomhukins]

As tilly suggests, it depends on your reader. If you're writing complex code that inexperienced programmers could never hope to understand, use complex Perl idioms.

Programmers tend to create simpler interfaces around complex code to perform common tasks. Complexity occurs in most systems: hiding it away makes systems accessible to more people, trading off power for accessibility.

If you like patterns, I find Christopher Alexander's intimacy gradient roughly analogous to this. Your code base has complex, private areas that few people need to interact with and simpler, public areas that interact with many more people. Your programming style can vary according to who the code is for.