People time is more valuble than machine time.
hehe ... that seems to be the driving motto of perl... :)

if we were all hell-bent on maximum performance, most of us wouldnt be using perl at all but rather assembly or some language of that sort.

i agree with you, readability almost always wins out over line count in my programs, however, dont mistake line count for efficiency line count doesnt always indicate a slower/worse script... sometimes adding a few lines into a script can substantially speed it up.