Rants

Why Perl programs should always 'use strict'

Yes, every Perl programmer knows that you should 'use strict', but sometimes it's just easier not to. BUT YOU SHOULD ALWAYS DO IT ANYWAY. I just spent an hour debugging a bit of existing code where I added a bit of fork/waitpid code (copy/pasted from elsewhere) to implement concurrent child processing. And because 'use strict' wasn't on in (not my fault, the original code isn't mine), and I didn't add use POSIX ":sys_wait_h"; at the start, the WNOHANG constant wasn't defined. So perl just said "ok, I'll make that 0".

Documentation

Documentation. Supposedly the bane of every programmer, system administrator, or techie person who'd rather be Doing It than Writing About It. Those same people are also the first to complain about any lack lustre documentation of technology they're trying to use, once again proving that irony is not dead. Therefore, I'm going to complain some more, because it might make me feel better, and because I think I've got something else to say along the way.

The short version of my argument is this: if it's not documented, it may as well not exist.

Form or Function

2008-09-12 09:32:58
Fashion is fickle. I originally would have contended that it is also pointless; however, I had to change my mind.
When pondering this rant about fashion, I had one opinion. However, as I turned the issue over in my mind, I realised I had completely missed the point.

Political Time Wasters

Politicians are wasting time; time that belongs to the public as their employersIn New Zealand, 2008, we have an national election coming sometime later this year. The politicians, the ultimate public servants, are doing the same thing they've done for years, but with more vigour than usual. What's that, you ask? Making decisions? Fostering coherent debate? Working towards the best possible solution to the issues of they day? I wish. No, they're doing what they've always done.

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