Typing

[unixronin]

The question came up elsewhere of what's the most CPU-time-effective way in Perl to determine whether a scalar's value "looks like a number".  It led to the following thought:

In some languages, you can ask the question "Is this variable an INT?" and get a YES or NO answer.

There are others in which you can ask "Are you an INT?" and get the answer "No, I'm a pointer to CHAR."

And then there's Perl, which more or less answers, "Why, sure, honey, if that's your kink we can do that, no problem...."

Comments

[ithildae.livejournal.com]

Yet another reason why perl is a write only language.

[laurarey.livejournal.com]

And of course python just looks at you nicely, with a slightly quizzical expression of "Why is someone as amazing as yourself even worried about such trivialities?" It then says, "Don't worry, let me take care of it for you. Would you like some coffee?"