in reply to Re^6: Thread on Joel on software forum : "I hate Perl programmers."
in thread Thread on Joel on software forum : "I hate Perl programmers."

You keep mentioning over-use of $_ as a problem but I have to confess, I don't remember any time I was particurally stumped by the usage of $_ in an expression. Do you have any examples of complicated expressions where using $_ makes them harder to understand?
  • Comment on Re^7: Thread on Joel on software forum : "I hate Perl programmers."

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Re^8: Thread on Joel on software forum : "I hate Perl programmers."
by perrin (Chancellor) on Jun 17, 2005 at 03:50 UTC
    Seriously? $_ is always harder to understand than a well-named variable.
[reply]
      Um. Yes? 
      for( @birds )
{
  next unless /bar/;
  s/puffin/poppin/;
  print;
}

      [download]
      Versus 
      for $bird (@birds)
{
  next unless $bird =~ /bar/;
  $bird =~ s/puffin/poppin/;
  print $bird;
}

      [download]
      Maybe it's me or my choice of code, but I don't really see the second one as being much harder to understand.
[reply]
[d/l]
[select]
        No big deal -- we just diagree. I think the second is easier to read. Incidentally, you didn't explicitly use $_ here, just default function args. I find it more jarring when the $_ is explicit.
[reply]

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