“If you want your program to be readable, consider supplying the argument.”

— Larry Wall

In the perl man page.
Documentation

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "If you want your program to be readable, consider supplying the argument." by Larry Wall?

Larry Wall 294

American computer programmer and author, creator of Perl 1954

Related quotes

“An edition is… still wanted which shall, while in some places adhering… to the original text, at the same time be so entirely remodelled by the aid of accepted modern notation as to be thoroughly readable by any competent mathematician, and this want it is the object of the present work to supply.”

Thomas Little Heath (1861–1940) British civil servant and academic

Preface, p. ix
Apollonius of Perga (1896)

“If you want to program in C, program in C. It's a nice language. I use it occasionally…”

Larry Wall (1954) American computer programmer and author, creator of Perl

[7577@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV, 1990]
Usenet postings, 1990

“And we can always supply them with a program that makes identical files into links to a single file.”

Larry Wall (1954) American computer programmer and author, creator of Perl

[199709292012.NAA09616@wall.org, 1997]
Usenet postings, 1997

“What we wanted to preserve was not just a good environment in which to do programming, but a system around which fellowship could form. We knew from experience that the essence of communal computing, as supplied by remote-access, time-shared machines, is not just to type programs into a terminal instead of a keypunch, but to encourage close communication.”

Dennis M. Ritchie (1941–2011) American computer scientist

In a 1980 lecture "The Evolution of the UNIX Time-sharing System", as quoted in Christopher Negus, Linux Bible 2010 Edition http://books.google.com/books?id=W5vItTVMLaYC&pg=PT650 (2010),

“At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. The goal is equality.”

Paul of Tarsus book Second Epistle to the Corinthians

2 Corinthians 8:14 NIV
Second Epistle to the Corinthians

“You see that I have set out opposing assertions in response to your question and I have touched on quite strong arguments in support of each position. Therefore consider now which seems the more probable to you.”

William of Ockham (1285–1349) medieval philosopher and theologian

Vol. I, Book 1, Ch. 2.
Dialogus (1494)
Context: The Holy Spirit through blessed John the evangelist makes a terrible threat against those who add anything to or take anything from divine scripture when he says in the last chapter of Revelations [22:18–9], "If any man shall add to these things, God shall add unto him the plagues which are in this book. And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take his part out of the book of life and out of the holy city, and from these things that are written in this book." We clearly gather from all these that nothing should be added to sacred scripture nor anything removed from it. To decide by way of teaching, therefore, which assertion should be considered catholic, which heretical, chiefly pertains to theologians, the experts on divine scripture.
You see that I have set out opposing assertions in response to your question and I have touched on quite strong arguments in support of each position. Therefore consider now which seems the more probable to you.