in reply to WARNING t0mas wrote BAD CODE
in thread Odd file rename

Look, merlyn, I like your work. You're a good author, and an incredibly good Perl coder. I only wish my code were as clean and neat as yours.

That said, tone it down. Did t0mas give a sub-optimal piece of code? Sure. From your warning, sounds like it's not a good thing at all. And yes, using File::Find would probably be a better solution. But damnit, TMTOWTDI. And even if there WEREN'T, that's not an excuse to blast him like that.

- Ozymandias

Update: It's been a long morning in the chatterbox. For the record, no, I did not intend the original version of this post (ie everything above the word "Update") to be a personal attack on merlyn. We all know who he is, we all know and respect him. Most of us, if not all of us, even like him. I felt (and others agreed) that in this case, merlyn went over the top. After much discussion, he has moderated his tone a bit, and a message further down this thread clarifies his position a bit. I think that was a good thing to do; I think the new version is much, much better, and probably would not have generated the response the original did.

Now this thread is over. If I have to, I'll find someone to post a Hitler reference. Don't think I won't do it...

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
RE: Warning: merlyn was a BAD MONK
by Ovid (Cardinal) on Jun 14, 2000 at 22:19 UTC
    Nazis, nazis, you're all nazis! Are we done now?

    Please check the link above before voting me --. This was done tongue-in-cheek and partially in response to a lot of near-flaming Chatterbox discussion. Actually, I think this entire thing might have blown over much earlier if it weren't for a certain May 17 Initiate who kept fanning the flames.

    And for those who are sick of Godwin's law, please check out Seebach's law.

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      Looks like you lose ;-)

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RE: Warning: merlyn was a BAD MONK
by merlyn (Sage) on Jun 14, 2000 at 20:52 UTC
    So you'd rather have people copy t0mas's work and then get code that goes off into never-never land or triggers CERT warnings?

    This is what peer review is about. t0mas posted code. I reviewed it. Sure, there's more than one way to do it, but this wasn't one of them.

    -- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker

[reply]
      Actually, no. I'd rather you be the kind of saint we all know you really are. As I said, you know more than I do; probably more than anyone here does. That doesn't mean +7 font tags are the right way to go. I'd rather you say that recursion the way t0mas did it causes problems with symlinks, and as a result you'd suggest using some other method. t0mas' method does work, though, right? If I were going to use it in some situation (entirely hypothetical) where symlinks weren't an issue, I might prefer to do it that way for some reason - and in that case, I'd rather have your suggestion on how to do it better. That's all I'm saying.

      - Ozymandias

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        View source. It was +4, not +7. (I've since edited it to +1.) And the problem with such solutions (that use explicit recursion instead of File::Find) is that they are non-portable, are often harder to get right, and create a "bad meme" virus. These must be contained and innoculated, lest they inflict pain upon the innocent.

        -- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker

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In Section Seekers of Perl Wisdom