Liberating words. A theme I've read dragonchild on, more than once. Code needs lots of different kinds of resources to run. CPU, memory and all that stuff, sure, but also Write Time and Fix Time. Perl seems to shine when those last two are the ones you want to minimise. And given that everything else is getting cheaper and cheaper, that's a good strategy (as well as being one instinctively favoured by the geeks who do the Write 'n' Fix). For me, self-"employed" (quotes meant to dispel any illusion I might be getting paid) writing an application for a web site well past its launch date, this translates into "if the site goes live a month earlier, it'll make enough money in that extra month to pay for the RAM and processor speed you would have saved by farting around getting the code to go quicker."

Nevertheless, I always find myself worrying about little improvements that take a long time to get done. Perhaps this confession will help me to cut to the chase with renewed vigour.

§ George Sherston