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The purpose of most computer languages is to lengthen your resume by a word and a comma.

Larry Wall

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Larry Wall
Age: 70
Born: 1954
Born: September 27
Computer Scientist
Engineer
Linguist
Programmer
Writer
LA
California
TimToady
Larry Arnold Wall
Word
Purpose
Language
Lengthen
Comma
Resume
Resumes
Languages
Computer

More quotes by Larry Wall

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I suppose you could switch grammars once you've seen 'use strict subs'.
Larry Wall
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If any ideology is so serious that you can't have fun while you're doing it, it's probably too serious.
Larry Wall
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If you consistently take an antagonistic approach, however, people are going to start thinking you're from New York.
Larry Wall
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Information doesn't want to be free. Information wants to be valuable.
Larry Wall
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Real theology is always rather shocking to people who already think they know what they think. I'm still shocked myself.
Larry Wall
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Laziness is a programmers main virtue.
Larry Wall
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I think operating systems work best if they're free and open. Particular applications are more likely to be proprietary.
Larry Wall
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The only reason [not to use] perl is that some sysadmins don't allow software that they didn't pay for. By all means, let them send me money if it makes them feel better.
Larry Wall
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In general, they do what you want, unless you want consistency.
Larry Wall
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I just hope I'm never promoted to the level of my incontinence.
Larry Wall
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Now, I'm not the only language designer with irrationalities. You can think of some languages to go with some of these things.
Larry Wall
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If you're a large corporation, you can afford to pay the money to register patents, but if you're an individual like me, you can't.
Larry Wall
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The court finds everyone to be in contempt (including himself :-), and orders everyone sentenced to five years hard labor. (Working on Perl, of course.)
Larry Wall
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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.
Larry Wall
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Just don't create a file called '-rf.'
Larry Wall
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Lurking is one metaphor that the Omniscience has allowed us to borrow.
Larry Wall
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Symmetry is overrated. Overrated is symmetry.
Larry Wall
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It's certainly easy to calculate the average attendance for Perl conferences.
Larry Wall
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Historically speaking, the presence of wheels in Unix has never precluded their reinvention.
Larry Wall
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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.
Larry Wall