Perl Style: Everyone Has an Opinion

  • Style can easily become a religious issue.
  • What I am about to tell you is mostly my opinion. It includes both general philosophy and concrete tips.
  • Warning: I may not always follow my own tips. :-)
  • I do not expect all of you to agree with me all the time. Choose a style and stick with it. Consistency is critical.
  • I owe indirectly K&P, K&R, S&W, Rob Pike, and Larry Wall for laying the foundations, and directly Jon Orwant, Mark-Jason Dominus, and Nat Torkington for reviewing early versions of these notes.
  • `Under no circumstances should you program the way I say to because I say to; program the way you think expresses best what you’re trying to accomplish in the program. And do so consistently and ruthlessly.’ –Rob Pike

Forward to Program Perl, Not C/BASIC/Java/Pascal/etc
Up to index

Copyright © 1998, Tom Christiansen All rights reserved.

Tags

Feedback

Something wrong with this article? Help us out by opening an issue or pull request on GitHub

TPRF Gold Sponsor
TPRF Silver Sponsor
TPRF Bronze Sponsor
TPRF Bronze Sponsor