[[rescue] flamewar question: Perl]

[Ken Hansen]

I side with Dave McGuire on this - PERL is, um, not very intuitave IMHO.

I took a *class* on PERL, and it degenerated into "show and tell" - "see these
ten lines, they do some really neat things, but I had no idea how it did it, so I
spent several hours pulling it apart nad finally 'got it'..."

Geez, it was better than the other language I "learned" - Java.

I think my brain only handles ALGOL-inspired languages...

I consider PERL to be somewhere between Assembler and programming in Microsoft
BASIC byte-code (where each keyword mapped to a single byte value). It can be
done, it can be powerful, but god help the person who comes after you to support
it.

Bill - if you are looking for a solid language to learn, have you "done C" yet?
The ORA Practical C book is very good (Steve Oaline (sp?), developer of vim, the
One True editor),a s is the original Programming in C by Kernigan & Ritchie.

PERL is (IMHO) a hack language, and while great things can be done with it, I'll
stick with the "classics".

Ken
(There, did I flame the fires enough? ;^)

Michael Hansen wrote:

> Bill Bradford <mrbill at mrbill.net> wrote:
> >Okay, I know this is liable to generate a flame war.
> >Tis good, we need more activity on the lists anyway.
>
> Hard to have a one-sided war. Everyone around here seems reasonably
> sane and intelligent, so I don't think any negative comments about perl
> are likely.
>
> >Is it worth my time to lern Perl? (er, "learn perl better
> >than the little I know it already")?
>
> I think "Is it worth my time to learn anything else?" might be
> the right question.
>
> Perl is so much less stressful to work with than anything else I have
> made an effort to learn. I kept starting to learn C++, but now I don't
> feel any need to.
>
> >I've got all the ORA books (learning perl, programming perl,
>
> Me too. I think they're pretty good. Learning Perl has almost become
> part of my hand. I sleep with it under my pillow.  I spend all my time between
> classes (sometimes durring class) in the lab, trying variations
> on the examples and such.
>
> (Ex-soap opera actor that now does infomercials voice)
> Since I started to learn perl, I've lost 10 lbs, I eat less and
> exercise more, plus I have so much more energy!!! Members of the opposite
> sex will talk to me now - I owe everything to perl - it changed my life
> and I feel great!!! Thank you, perl!
>
> Does that answer your question?
>
> -Mike Hansen
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