To clarify, I think the idea of Perl::Critic is a very good one, but I also think that the rules should be written to encapsulate as much as possible the finer details of when something is good or bad.

With respect to the all or nothing nature of the beast, as I explained to adrianh, whilst the programmer is personally responsible for deciding which rules to adhere to and which to eshew, it is a very useful tool in his toolkit.

The problem arises when blanket decisions are taken on high and enforced without individual judgement upon programmers by PHBs. If you have never had to comply with assanine coding standards, you will not understand my ire here. If you have, you'll know that it can completely ruin a working environment.

The problem comes when one member of staff starts using and recommends (for example), the PBP set of rules, and a non-coder management type takes up the cause and decides that all code, and all staff must code to the full set unselectively. It happens.

Once such sets of rules are set inplace, it becomes hell's own job to change them--especially from the outside or lower ranks.