Clever code often relies on assumptions. Sooner or later, one will break.

I wasn't advocating using the "clever" code. But given that it's oft been cited that "perl is the reference to Perl", justifying not using it on the basis of a well-known reality, not having been explicitly documented is a nonsense.

There are lots of good reasons for not using it, primarily that they have no advantage over the simpler and clearer versions, but the fact that the always-has-been-and-(probably)-always-will-be-and-would-break-half-of-CPAN-if-it-ever-changed behaviour isn't explicitly documented isn't one of them.

Even if they never break, the burden of veryfying assumptions has been added.

You mean like: testing?

Update: Overloaded ops break your claim of always and ever.

Actually it doesn't. The "claim" as you term it, applies to perl, not arbitrary modules.

Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".
In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.
"Too many [] have been sedated by an oppressive environment of political correctness and risk aversion."

In reply to Re^6: Clever vs. Readable by BrowserUk
in thread Clever vs. Readable by Anonymous Monk

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.