Absolutely. One of the hallmarks of the master programmer is that s/he programs with the intended maintenance programmer's level in mind. For example, the code I write for my CPAN modules is very different from the code I write when doing maintenance on a contract. In the first case, the only people I expect to even read it are programmers of my skill level, so I can use more advanced constructs (soft references and closures) and my code can be more compact. I also make extensive use of direct access into @_, where I would never do that in application code.
My criteria for good software:
- Does it work?
- Can someone else come in, make a change, and be reasonably certain no bugs were introduced?
