use strict and -w (use warnings) are optional (although Larry has been quoted as saying that this is a bug in Perl!) You are, of course, quite at liberty to to use or not use these as you feel appropriate.

The problem comes when someone not using these aids finds a bug in their script. They then post non-strict code here (or on comp.lang.perl.misc) and ask for help when in many cases just adding use strict or -w to their script would help them find the bug far faster on their own.

In summary - don't use these tools if you don't want to, but if you're going to ask other people for help, it's only polite to ensure that your script is 'strict-clean'.

--
<http://www.dave.org.uk>

European Perl Conference - Sept 22/24 2000, ICA, London
<http://www.yapc.org/Europe/>