I know that Duff's device in perl has already been discussed here and most probably elsewhere. In particular a Super Search turned out the following threads:
Basically they all discuss the perl version/translation of the actual Duff's device logic. But I'm asking something different.
Specifically I'm asking about highly bummed perl code, that one has felt the need to write instead of a less obscure version. Indeed there would be tons of Obfu and golf code to exhibit - but I'm not talking about stuff done for fun. I'm rather focusing on so called "production code" in which one has felt for whatever reson the need to leave obscure code spotting an intricate and maybe surprising perl feature, probably along with a big comment indicating both what he/she is doing and why he is doing it that way.
So, do you have a favourite code portion of yours that you would regard as your own perlsonal equivalente of Duff's device?
Note: in case you wonder and before you point it out... since this has directly or indirectly to do with some sort of optimisation: yes, I know that "premature optimisation is the root of all evil", and I'm asking just out of curiosity!
Code quality naturally degrades the more people modify it. I don't see any reason to contribute to that by intentionally writing complicated code.
I agree with you, do not misunderstand me! It all boils down to what you mean by "complicated". For example there may be a very concise way to do something that would also be fast, but may end up being unclear except possibly for very expert programmers and that the "simpler" solutions may all end up being... ehm... more complicated!
Indeed I was specifically asking about personal experiences with situations in which there were "really good reasons to make it complicated", because I don't recall any in my own experience, but others may well have! Just being curious, you know...
I think that the reference trick for [cpan://CGI].pm's html generators would qualify. For example,
use CGI ':standard';
my @foo = qw/foo bar baz/;
print p({}, @foo), $/;
print p({}, \@foo), $/;
__END__
foo bar baz
foo
bar
baz
That's pretty puzzling to somebody who doesn't know that CGI.pm convention. Very useful if you have to build a table on the fly.
The need for that has pretty much disappeared with the adoption of powerful [cpan://Template] mechanisms.
After Compline,
Zaxo
Well, that's interesting and... I didn't know about it! It may be certainly useful for quick hacks...
Actually it may make some code of mine which massively uses the shortcut functions even simpler/cleaner.
It's called "XS". :-) It's hard to understand, has a bunch of odd little rules and quirks, and makes the relevent perl function typically run several times faster than the more straightforward encoding.
It's also a right pain to debug and maintain, again, like Duff's device, and other assorted hackery and trickery. ;-)
--
Ytrew