Juerd wrote:
> Robin Bowes skribis 2006-06-20 14:16 (+0100):
>>> Let's not discuss this in too much detail, but my strong opinion is
>>> that including /xms by default is a very bad idea. Use them when you
>>> *need* them, and only then.
>> Why do you think that?
> 
> It's carco cult programming.

?

Ah, car*g*o cult programming, as in
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult_programming

I disagree - it's good practice.

I always "use warnings" and "use strict" in all my perl code. Is that
cargo cult programming too?

> "/m" is only ever meaningful if your data has multiple lines,

...but harmless if it doesn't, so it's good practice to use it consistently.

> and "/s" makes matching [^\n] incredibly inconvenient, while that's a very 
> common thing to match. 

Huh? You just did it: [^\n] - any character except a newline. What's
inconvenient about that? And that's a damn sight clearer than using "."
and relying on the default behaviour (that "." doesn't match newlines).

>> Conway's reasoning is as follows:
> 
> I know.
> 
>> Which parts of this advice do you disagree with, and why?
> 
> The "always" parts. Know what /m does, and use it when you need it. Know
> what /s does, and use it when you need it. Know what /x does, and use it
> when you need it.

Personally I don't think it hurts to use them all, all the time.

But I guess we can agree to disagree.

> If you really want to discuss this further, I suggest that you start a
> thread on perlmonks.org and announce the URL. It's off topic here.

http://perlmonks.org/?node_id=556406

R.

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