{"id":1053,"date":"2008-02-19T20:04:30","date_gmt":"2008-02-20T01:04:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2008\/02\/19\/legal-system-as-a-perl-os\/"},"modified":"2008-02-19T20:04:30","modified_gmt":"2008-02-20T01:04:30","slug":"legal-system-as-a-perl-os","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2008\/02\/19\/legal-system-as-a-perl-os\/","title":{"rendered":"Legal System as a Perl OS?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/seenonslash.com\/node\/2616\">OK, you really do have to be a geek to understand this, but that doesn&#8217;t make it any less funny:<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Our legal code is almost entirely like an entire operating system written in undocumented Perl.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>There are no hints as to what any part of it is supposed to do and it is written in a language that to most people looks like line noise.<\/li>\n<li>Every significant patch is applied by adding an additional Perl module that overrides an existing method in an existing module, replacing all of the code in that method with a complete new copy of the method that is almost identical to the old one but adds or removes a backslash in a single regular expression.<\/li>\n<li>The entire core logic was written in a crunch session by a bunch of geeks locked in a room together and forced to design it by committee.<\/li>\n<li>The application was a rewrite of another application that never really worked well in the first place.<\/li>\n<li>Every function name is chosen explicitly to provoke an emotional response in the developer, e.g. thisFunctionSucks() or callMeNow().<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>It&#8217;s funny because it&#8217;s <em>true<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>OK, you really do have to be a geek to understand this, but that doesn&#8217;t make it any less funny: Our legal code is almost entirely like an entire operating system written in undocumented Perl. There are no hints as to what any part of it is supposed to do and it is written in&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2008\/02\/19\/legal-system-as-a-perl-os\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Legal System as a Perl OS?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"webmentions_disabled_pings":false,"webmentions_disabled":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[85,46],"class_list":["post-1053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fun-stuff","tag-geek","tag-humor","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pimUj-gZ","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2800,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2009\/09\/08\/treating-our-legal-code-like-computer-code\/","url_meta":{"origin":1053,"position":0},"title":"Treating our Legal Code like Computer Code","author":"Keith Survell","date":"September 8, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Looking at some pending legislation through the eyes of a computer programmer... and finding it... wanting.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;My Opinion&quot;","block_context":{"text":"My Opinion","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/personal\/my-opinion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":835,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2007\/01\/05\/geek-humor\/","url_meta":{"origin":1053,"position":1},"title":"Geek Humor","author":"Keith Survell","date":"January 5, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Object-oriented kittens have no ->microwave() method, but real world microwave ovens use a procedural model.\"","rel":"","context":"In &quot;fun stuff&quot;","block_context":{"text":"fun stuff","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/fun-stuff\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1462,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2008\/11\/03\/a-programmers-perspective-on-politics\/","url_meta":{"origin":1053,"position":2},"title":"A Programmer&#8217;s Perspective on Politics","author":"Keith Survell","date":"November 3, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Election time always finds me musing on the nature of politics. Of course I must admit that being a computer programmer colors my view of the whole process more than just a little bit. I mean, I know that the political process in this country is one that has evolved\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;politics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"politics","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Image courtesty Flikr user umjanedoan","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2008\/11\/really-old-law-books.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":590,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2005\/08\/05\/spam-me-not\/","url_meta":{"origin":1053,"position":3},"title":"Spam Me Not","author":"Keith Survell","date":"August 5, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Spam is a problem for everyone, but it's especially a problem for me - since I get all of the email for the entire StarKeith.net domain.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;tech&quot;","block_context":{"text":"tech","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2554,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2009\/05\/13\/don%e2%80%99t-be-a-slave-to-technology\/","url_meta":{"origin":1053,"position":4},"title":"Don\u2019t Be a Slave to Technology","author":"Keith Survell","date":"May 13, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Despite being a huge computer geek, I am not a slave to technology - and I would say in today's world it is increasingly important NOT to be a slave to technology... despite the fact that an increasing number of people are.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Internet&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Internet","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/technology\/internet-technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":177,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2004\/07\/27\/how-to-hack\/","url_meta":{"origin":1053,"position":5},"title":"&#8220;How To Hack&#8221;","author":"Keith Survell","date":"July 27, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"\"How To Hack,\" a brief guide to hacking (the way of thinking more than anything else) by: Keith M. 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