[rescue] flamewar question: Perl

[Greg]

> Personally, I think Perl is a flaming pile of crap, and I don't use it
> unless I absolutely have to.  Just because Larry Wall writes a lot about
> programming language design, etc. doesn't mean that he knows WTF he is
> doing.

Larry never claims to know about *programming* language design.  He's a
linguist by education, he knows about *natural* language design. And Perl
reflects that.  Yes, it's a horrible example of a programming language. It's
horribly useful as well.

My $0.02... if you're wanting to be a programmer, learn Scheme first (I sure
wish I had, instead I studied Scheme on my own after school) and, once
you've learned that, move onto other systems-level programming languages
(C, C++, Java, etc) where you can apply that knowledge.  There's probably a
reason MIT uses (used?) Scheme as its introductory programming language.

On the other hand, if you're wanting to be a sysadmin with exceptionally
good scripting skills then be sure to fully learn standard shell (sh and
ksh) first and then choose Perl next (as a practical matter, it's now part
of most Unix distributions).  But don't forget to spend time with cleaner
scripting languages such as those recommended by Patrick (python, in
particular) to atone for the bad habits you'll pick up using Perl :-)
Tcl has its uses but can be extremely frustrating (quoting rules are often
cited as an example).

-greg