Human languages tend to be much more ambiguous than computer languages because humans are much smarter about interpreting the context.

You don't have to know the whole language to use it usefully, you can do baby talk, you can do grown up talk, you can cuss in it, you can write poetry, you can be a playwright, is sort of the idea.

Computer languages differ not so much in what they make possible, but in what they make easy.

I want people to use Perl. I want to be a positive ingredient of the world and make my American history. So, whatever it takes to give away my software and get it used, that's great.

Well, you can implement a Perl peek() with unpack('P',...). Once you have that, there's only security through obscurity.

There's a saying in the software design industry: "Good. Fast. Cheap. Pick two."

Computer programming is really a lot like writing a recipe. If you've read a recipe, you know what the structure of a recipe is, it's got some things up at the top that are your ingredients, and below that, the directions for how to deal with those ingredients.