“If you remove stricture from a large Perl program currently, you're just installing delayed bugs, whereas with this feature, you're installing an instant bug that's easily fixed. Whoopee.”

—  Larry Wall

[199710050130.SAA04762@wall.org, 1997]
Usenet postings, 1997

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 remove stricture from a large Perl program currently, you're just installing delayed bugs, whereas with this fea…" by Larry Wall?
Larry Wall photo
Larry Wall 294
American computer programmer and author, creator of Perl 1954

Related quotes

“…perhaps this is a "feature", not a bug….”

Paul DiLascia (1959–2008) American software developer

1995/10
About Microsoft

“"The question is, is that a bug or a feature?" Karl asked.”

Rick Cook (1944) American writer

The Wizardry Compiled (1989)

Richard Stallman photo
Larry Wall photo

“That is a known bug in 5.00550. Either an upgrade or a downgrade will fix it.”

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

[6vu1vo%2489c@kiev.wall.org, 1998]
Usenet postings, 1998

Kim Harrison photo
Nicholas Negroponte photo

“When you write a computer program you've got to not just list things out and sort of take an algorithm and translate it into a set of instructions. But when there's a bug — and all programs have bugs — you've got to debug it. You've got to go in, change it, and then re-execute … and you iterate. And that iteration is really a very, very good approximation of learning.”

Nicholas Negroponte (1943) American computer scientist

Nicholas Negroponte: A 30-year history of the future http://www.ted.com/talks/nicholas_negroponte_a_30_year_history_of_the_future, July 2014, TED Talks (about 13:40 into 19:43 video).
A 30-year history of the future, TED Talk (2014)

Bill Gates photo
Edsger W. Dijkstra photo

“Program testing can be used to show the presence of bugs, but never to show their absence!”

Edsger W. Dijkstra (1930–2002) Dutch computer scientist

Dijkstra (1970) " Notes On Structured Programming http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/ewd02xx/EWD249.PDF" (EWD249), Section 3 ("On The Reliability of Mechanisms"), corollary at the end.
1970s
Variant: Program testing can be a very effective way to show the presence of bugs, but it is hopelessly inadequate for showing their absence.

Related topics