> If you cannot understand this:
>
> if ($x == 1 || $y == 2) {
I might be able to understand that :-), but on the other hand
I can also understand (($x == 1) || ($y == 2)) and there isn't
the slightest shred of doubt in the back of my mind that
the author actually meant that :-).
> I dunno, I am not sure I buy it. Can you give us an example of
> well-written Perl code that would be very difficult for
> another reasonably
> competent Perl programmer to maintain?
That's easy - pick any random piece of code from CPAN.
(or just from the well written subset :-). The odds are
high that it uses some idiom you aren't familir with and
will stop you in your tracks when you are trying to
debug through it in detail.
I'm not saying this same problem doesn't exist in all
other languages, just that perl has so many ways to do
things that the problem is much larger. (In fact the
general problem is so pervasive I really don't understand
the tendency in the industry to have new hires and trainees
doing maintainence and "experts" doing development -
maintainence usually calls for a lot more expertise :-).
