RE: [FWP] Drunk Driving redux (what was he thinking?)

[Vicki Brown <vlb@cfcl.com>]

At 12:03 -0700 6/24/99, Larry Rosler wrote:
>> I needed to share this...
> ...
>>           ( $szRoot = $szPhdFile ) =~ s/\.phd\..*$//;

No, not that.  That wasn't the line I needed to share :-)

> ...
>> The casual usage of the
>>     ($a = $b) =~ s/pat//;
>> idiom in the 4th line helped throw me off kilter.

Off kilter. i.e.  Confused me about what was meant by the rest of the code.

>
> So you have learned a new idiom, and it's now clear to you.  What's
> pathetic about that?
>
> No sympathy here!

You've misunderstood me.  This was not what caused me pain. The use of the
     (...) =~ s/...
idiom (_I_ know this idiom, Larry :-) threw me off when reading the rest of
the code.

I see I was too subtle (a known problem with presenting puzzles :(. I shall
be more blunt.

Specifically, the line which illustrates (to me) TMTOWTDI (but some are
wrong) is:
    if ( index( $szPhdFile, ".phd." ) >= 0 ) {

My thoughts when reviewing this code ran as follows: "Now, why would
someone who appears to understand pattern matching and substitution be
using index here... Is there a method to the madness?


I would have used

    if ($szPhdFile =~ /\.phd\./) {

> At least, if one wishes to follow the True Path of Enlightenment as
> regards "Making the Goal clearer to the Reader".
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