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Larry Wall Interview Posted on Slashdot

posted by pudge on 2002.09.06 13:04   

mshiltonj writes "Larry Wall has repsonded the slashdot questions from last week. My favorite line: 'Well, in general, the thing I don't like about other computer languages is that they're not Perl.'"

• Perl 6: The Big Knob Release (Score:3, Interesting)

  by jjohn (22) on 2002.09.06 14:00 (#12587) Homepage Journal

  As has been mentioned, Larry believes Perl 6 will have more robust policy tools to allow programmers all the B&D-style development they've come to expect from other languages. In the spirit of Red Hat, I suggest we begin giving releases titles. Therefore, Perl 6 should be called 'The Big Knob Release' -- something for both Perl boosters and booers to cheer. Think of the T-shirt sales!

  Reply to This

  • Re:Perl 6: The Big Knob Release (Score:2)

    by merlyn (47)

    Great idea. Although do we even dare start a thread about what title to give instead of "pumpking"?

    --
    

    • Randal L. Schwartz
    • Stonehenge
• My, my, my (Score:2)

  by djberg96 (2603)

  I have to say I was quite surprised when Larry said, "We'll be sticking with explicit my declarations". Gah! How did Ruby get it wrong by using implicit lexical scoping? It's better to have my sprayed everywhere? If globals are the exception to the rule in virtually every program, why make them the default scope? I thought this was one thing that would *definitely* be changed.

  Blech.
  • Re:My, my, my (Score:1)

    by bart (450)

    I have to say I was quite surprised when Larry said, "We'll be sticking with explicit my declarations". Gah! How did Ruby get it wrong by using implicit lexical scoping? It's better to have my sprayed everywhere?

    Let me give you this example:
    
sub foo {
        my $x = shift;
        if($x) {
                $y = 'yes';
        } else {
                $y = 'no';

    • Re:My, my, my (Score:2)

      by djberg96 (2603)

      Let me give you this example:

      So, you're not using strict? And *not* using strict is about the only way you can make an argument for this it seems to me. Since the hard-and-fast rule in Perl *is* to use strict, situations like this just don't occur.

      In addition, you can emulate my in Ruby by simply pre-declaring the variable.

      def foo(x)
         y = "" # or 'y = String.new' or 'y = nil'
         if x
            y = "yes"
         else
            y = "no"
         end
      end

      In
      • Re:My, my, my (Score:1)

        by marklark (634)

        One of the things that I love about Perl is that I don't _have to_ do things strictly. I must have missed the parts where Larry said that "use strict" is madatory. Gosh, I thought that TMTOWTDI.
        
        *sigh* and yes, it would be silly to have global scoping amongst objects, but don't they have their own namespaces to take care of that?
        
        I tell Perl what I want. It does what I mean - I make sure of it. Don't you?
        
        I use variables that have meaningful names (mostly) and they take care of themselves.
        
        Check the
• Focus of the /. comments (Score:1)

  by dapperdan (3475)

  It's too bad that the majority of the comments on slashdot focused on Larry's religious beliefs. As a religious software developer I respect Larry for answering the questions but it was sad to see the banter that was posted after his eloquent and gracious reply. I wish the discussion could have followed that path that this group appears to be following, commenting on upcoming developments and new developments in the language.

  Am I the only one that sees the massively anti-perl sentiment on ./? It seems to
  • Re:Focus of the /. comments (Score:1)

    by marklark (634)

    Well, I'm sure we're just a different type of swine. Perhaps more regenerate, but who's to say, really? :^)
    
    I didn't have nearly enough time to read all the comments, but I did enjoy Larry's (yeah, "Larry" like he's a good buddy or something :^) answers.
    
    Check Hebrews 11:6b and see if you don't recognize Larry's two point summation of his theology.
    
    Perhaps it is just a matter of us being faithful by telling people about Perl and those who believe and diligently seek it will be rewarded...