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Always code as if the guy who ends up maintaining your code will be a violent psychopath who knows where you live.

I found this at somebody's blog, and it introduces as Rick Osborne's. But I google this, and other people says: Martin Golding's, John Woods' and Damian Conway's... Yes, Damian Conway used this quote in "Perl Best Practices" (2005) but Damian doesn't mention who wrote it.

Does anybody know who the real author of this aphorism is?

John Vandenberg
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beatak
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    I can assure you it wasn't me. I came across it in late 1995 or early 1996 while lurking on a bunch of Perl mailing lists. – Rick O Dec 01 '10 at 17:35
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    This famous quote was actually wrote by a game programmer called John F. Woods in 1991. Refs: [link](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/comp.lang.c++/rYCO5yn4lXw/oITtSkZOtoUJ) ; [link](http://ruby.zigzo.com/2014/08/01/who-said-that-one-violent-psychopath-quote/). In my opinion this question/topic should be reopened since all questions should be opened for debate and it shouldn't be a reason for closing a topic. Most times it's through debate that we can get a good answer. Except if the topic is not about your favorite color or something like that. – Marco Dec 07 '17 at 13:58

2 Answers2

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I thought ChrisW's research was right, and I tried to confirm it by doing the same thing. I found John Woods' name in 1991 in this thread: Usage of comma operator

Bill Mitchell View profile More options Sep 26 1991, 1:57 am In article <5...@ksr.com> j...@ksr.com (John F. Woods) writes:

[...] Always code as if the guy who ends up maintaining your code will be a violent psychopath who knows where you live. Code for readability.

Damn right!

So maybe John Woods?

Aug 22, 2014: Link is updated.

beatak
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11

Its earliest appearance on Google Groups is unattributed in the sig of a post by Martin Golding in 1994.

ChrisW
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