From: Michael Campbell <michael_s_campbell@...>
Date: 2002-09-08T08:38:29+09:00
Subject: Re: Larry Wall's comments on Ruby

> Yes, while it _seems_ to be a fitting quote and it's often thrown
> around, 
> I don't think you'd really want to rely on Oscar Wilde to give you
> tips 
> about programming (or programming language design) ;-)


Of course not, everything has its place.  In my day-to-day work (I'm
an application programmer by trade), I hear time over time that
people want to do "x" because it's consistent with "y"; never mind
that "x" is wrong, inefficient, or otherwise "smelly".

I'm actually probably much more conservative in that regard than some
of my coworkers in that regard, but I'm not afraid to try something
different if "the old way" doesn't seem to apply.  In that regard,
Wilde was right.

To add another quote to the mix (and I apologize for not having a
cite; I'm going from memory); "there are 2 types of fools in the
world; one says "this is old and therefore good", the other says
"this is new, and therefore better"".  I'm often trying to figure out
which fool I'm trying to be less of at that moment.

=====
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