While Perl may be able to execute code fast, that isn't the focus of the language. The focus of Perl, as documented by many more Perlish than me, is to improve programmer efficiency. Now, it's nice to have efficient programmers while still having somewhat efficient programs, and I love it when that happens. I love being able to write programs extremely quickly that just happen to run quick enough so that I don't have to rewrite them.

But, the point theorbtwo is making is that, for the first writing of a program, you shouldn't worry about CPU speed, RAM, disk, or any other plebian item. The items that need to be concerned with in the first pass, in order, are:

  1. Does the program do what it needs to do?
  2. Does the program have any horrible crash-me type bugs?
  3. Did I finish the program in the time allotted to me by those paying me?
  4. Does the program have any medium-sized bugs that will occasionally trip users up?
  5. Is the program fast enough for the average usage?
  6. Does the program have any bugs at all?
  7. Can I improve the program's internal structure to make future changes easier?
  8. Can I improve the program's internal structure so that someone else can make changes without messing up my stuff?

Now, a requirement for item #1 may be "Execute in such-and-such time", in which case execution speed is a priority above programmer time. And, if that's the case, then Perl may not be the appropriate language for such an endeavor. If it is not, then Perl may be appropriate.

Being right, does not endow the right to be rude; politeness costs nothing.
Being unknowing, is not the same as being stupid.
Expressing a contrary opinion, whether to the individual or the group, is more often a sign of deeper thought than of cantankerous belligerence.
Do not mistake your goals as the only goals; your opinion as the only opinion; your confidence as correctness. Saying you know better is not the same as explaining you know better.

In reply to Re^4: Using aliases in for loops or not? by dragonchild
in thread Using aliases in for loops or not? by jkva

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.