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Larry Wall

Larry Wall Quotes

Programmer

Larry Wall, born on September 27, 1954, is a renowned programmer. He is best known for inventing the Perl programming language, which has gained widespread popularity for its powerful text processing capabilities. Wall's contributions to the field of programming extend beyond Perl, as he has also been involved in numerous open-source projects, significantly impacting the programming community.

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All Computer Perl Thinking Language Ifs People Want Knows Programming Should

Famous Larry Wall Quotes

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

Ifs Writing Enough Glad

Author:Larry Wall

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

Whole Culture Growth Core Perl

Author:Larry Wall

“Perhaps I'm missing the gene for making enemies.”

Enemy Missing Genes

Author:Larry Wall

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

People Notion Occasions

Author:Larry Wall

“[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.”

People Happens Moving Community Balls Metaphor Boxes Multiple Escaping Rubies Perl Bouncing Ball

Author:Larry Wall

“Besides, REAL computers have a rename system call.”

Author:Larry Wall

“I won't mention any names, because I don't want to get sun4's into trouble.”

Want Names Trouble

Author:Larry Wall

“Any false value is gonna be fairly boring in Perl, mathematicians notwithstanding.”

Values Boring Mathematician Perl

Author:Larry Wall

“At many levels, Perl is a 'diagonal' language.”

Language Levels Perl Diagonal

Author:Larry Wall

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

Should Hard Fall Easy Categories Hard Things Easy Things Perl

Author:Larry Wall

“If you consistently take an antagonistic approach, however, people are going to start thinking you're from New York.”

People Ifs Thinking New York Approach University Consistently

Author:Larry Wall

“Perl programming is an *empirical* science!”

Programming Perl

Author:Larry Wall

“Not that I have anything much against redundancy. But I said that already.”

Said Redundancy

Author:Larry Wall

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

Author:Larry Wall

“There's often more than one correct thing. There's often more than one right thing. There's often more than one obvious thing.”

Obvious Right Thing Obvious Things

Author:Larry Wall

“I don't like this official/unofficial distinction. It sound, er, officious.”

Sound Officials Distinction

Author:Larry Wall

“Perl has a long tradition of working around compilers.”

Long Tradition Perl

Author:Larry Wall

“I think that's easier to read. Pardon me. Less difficult to read.”

Thinking Difficult Easier Pardon Pardon Me

Author:Larry Wall

“Portability should be the default.”

Should Default Portability

Author:Larry Wall

“Well, I think Perl should run faster than C.”

Thinking Should Wells Running Faster Perl

Author:Larry Wall

“To Perl , or not to Perl, that is the kvetching.”

Author:Larry Wall

“The court finds everyone to be in contempt (including himself :-), and orders everyone sentenced to five years hard labor. (Working on Perl, of course.)”

Years Hard Order Courses Five Labor Court Including Five Years Contempt Perl

Author:Larry Wall

“If you want your program to be readable, consider supplying the argument.”

Ifs Want Program Argument

Book:Programming Perl: Unmatched Power for Text Processing and Scripting

Source: Programming Perl: Unmatched Power for Text Processing and Scripting

“I want to see people using Perl to glue things together creatively, not just technically but also socially.”

People Want Together Glue Perl

Author:Larry Wall

“You can prove anything by mentioning another computer language.”

Language Prove Computer Computer Language

Author:Larry Wall

“Almost nothing in Perl serves a single purpose.”

Author:Larry Wall

“I view the JVM as just another architecture that Perl ought to be ported to. (That, and the Underwood typewriter...)”

Views Ought Architecture Typewriters Perl

Author:Larry Wall

“It would be possible to optimize some forms of goto, but I haven't bothered.”

Would Be Form Havens Bothered

Author:Larry Wall

“But the possibility of abuse may be a good reason for leaving capabilities out of other computer languages, it's not a good reason for leaving capabilities out of Perl.”

May Reason Language Possibility Computer Abuse Leaving Capability Computer Language Perl

Author:Larry Wall

“Perl should remain fast and intuitive (to the extent that it is :-)”

Should Intuitive Perl

Author:Larry Wall

“But I know what's important to me, and what isn't. And I think I know what people can get used to, and what they can even learn to like. (It just takes some people longer than others. :-)”

People Thinking Knows Important Used What's Important

Author:Larry Wall

“The autodecrement is not magical.”

Author:Larry Wall

“Information doesn't want to be free. Information wants to be valuable.”

Want Information Valuable

Author:Larry Wall

“Take Lisp, you know its the most beautiful language in the world -- at least up until Haskell came along.”

Knows World Beautiful Language Lisp Haskell

Author:Larry Wall

“Being famous has its benefits, but fame isn't one of them.”

Life Fame Benefits Being Famous

Author:Larry Wall

“As a linguist, I don't think of Ada as a big language. Now, English and Japanese, those are big languages. Ada is just a medium-sized language.”

Thinking Bigs Language Mediums Linguists Ada

Author:Larry Wall

“Obviously I was either onto something, or on something.”

Funny Science Technology

Author:Larry Wall

“There's a saying in the software design industry: "Good. Fast. Cheap. Pick two."”

Two Design Industry Picks Software Software Design

Author:Larry Wall

“I'm a great believer in visual distinctions.”

Believer Visuals Distinction

Author:Larry Wall

“There's many scripting languages in the world, Perl is a little bit special because it is based more on some ideas from the way natural languages work.”

World Way Littles Ideas Language Bits Natural Special Little Bit Perl

Author:Larry Wall

“You don't have to know the whole language to use it usefully, you can do baby talk, you can do grown up talk, you can cuss in it, you can write poetry, you can be a playwright, is sort of the idea.”

Knows Writing Ideas Whole Use Language Can Do Baby Playwright Baby Talk

Author:Larry Wall

“So many computer languages try to force you into one way of thinking and Perl is very much the opposite of that approach. It's kind of like a, well, sometimes Perl has been called the Swiss army chainsaw of the internet, but it's more like a Swiss army machine shop. It really gives you a lot of tools, some of which are dangerous, but it lets you get your job done very quickly.”

“Human languages tend to be much more ambiguous than computer languages because humans are much smarter about interpreting the context.”

Humans Language Computer Smarter Ambiguous Computer Language Interpreting Human Language

Author:Larry Wall

“Natural languages generally are not designed by humans, they're just designed by the participants and you say something new and somebody else says, "Oh, that's a cool way to say it," and the next thing you know, everyone is saying it because it's shiny.”

Knows Way Humans Next Language Natural Something New Participants

Author:Larry Wall

“Computer programming is really a lot like writing a recipe. If you've read a recipe, you know what the structure of a recipe is, it's got some things up at the top that are your ingredients, and below that, the directions for how to deal with those ingredients.”

Ifs Knows Writing Deals Computer Structure Programming Ingredients Recipes Computer Programming

Author:Larry Wall

“A lazy person will try to always find some way to do something; they'll always be looking for ways of doing something faster, more efficiently, and if you really want to control the world, that's a really sort of hubristic notion - excessive pride, the thing that Zeus zaps you for having.”

Ifs World Way Want Trying Persons Pride Notion Faster Lazy Zeus Excessive Pride

Author:Larry Wall

“I was raised a musician and I played classic music, violin, in orchestras and music comedy theaters, I have music running around in my head all the time, and if I hear music that's too interesting, I have to pay attention to it.”

Ifs Running Interesting Pay Attention Comedy Musician Theater Raised Pay Attention Classic Orchestra Violin Classic Music

Author:Larry Wall

“You know, I've got my hands in 30 or 40 different pots simultaneously and so I have a little bit of all of that where I work.”

Knows Littles Different Hands Bits Little Bit Pot

Author:Larry Wall

“I'm definitely a night owl. I get going about the time my wife crashes and goes to bed. And in some sense, I've had to learn to be more of a cat napper in recent years because Perl development, Perl design and development, has become a worldwide phenomenon - not just mailing lists, but RSC channels, Twitter even. This all happens 24 hours a day. And people come up with questions at any time of the day or night.”

People Years Happens Night Hours Wife Design Development Bed Cat Come Up My Wife Lists Phenomenon Crash Owl Perl Mailing Night Owl

Author:Larry Wall

“I've had to learn kind of sense when the questions would be coming and be ready to handle them. There's a lot of education and reiteration that happens on these online channels and sometimes it's tempting to just say, "Well, just go and read the documentation," but you know, people appreciate being led along and taught and mentored.”

People Knows Wells Kind Sometimes Happens Would Be Taught Ready Appreciate Handle Online Tempting Documentation

Author:Larry Wall

About the Author

Born: September 27, 1954
Known for: Programmer
Quotes: 218

Related Topics

Computer Perl Thinking Language Ifs People Want Knows Programming Should

Popular Topics

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Books & Sources

Programming Perl: 3rd EditionRelated source material

Programming Perl: Unmatched Power for Text Processing and ScriptingRelated source material

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