use Perl

I'll stop now. You probably know what I'm talking about.

I didn't come here to write about that -- I came here to discuss a fairly interesting little experience I had recently.

Looking through The Practice Of Programming while looking to purchase some books on the topic, I came across the most interesting thing; a program done in C, C++, Java, Awk, and Perl, and a table showing how many lines it took and how much time on a P2 233 and a P3 450. I turned it around to show Laura.

The C version took 3 seconds. Java took 4 something, and something was seriously wrong with the C++ version, which took some 11 seconds or so. What surprised her was when I showed her that the Perl one took three times as long as the C one.

"But what's the advantage of Perl over C, then?"

I pointed to the number of lines of C: 150. Then I pointed to the number of lines of Perl: 18.

She cocked her head. I went on to explain about less code = less typos, faster debug time, etc.

I consider it a lesson to me that I both need to learn C (in order to be able to create time-sensitive things) and learn more Perl (in order to work quickly).

I also, unfortunately, am probably going to end up taking a Java class whether I like it or not. Not many language courses are given where I'm going to school.