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• What I learned writing PPI (Score:1)

  by Alias (5735)

  The situation with Java comes down to one thing. Protection before execution.
  
  Java has a simple structure, it's easy to parse. So the editors and toolchain can be made SO much more rich for Java than for Perl.
  
  Then do extra checks at compile time, that we can't do.
  
  They have the equivalent of strict and warnings on by default.
  
  All of these checks are aimed at weeding out evil as early as possible, and managing it when it happens (exceptions).
  
  Of course you can write evil at the level above where the toolchain ca
  • Re:What I learned writing PPI (Score:1)

    by chromatic (983)

    The situation with Java comes down to one thing. Protection before execution.

    Don't forget lackluster abstraction possibilities, a huge standard library, the mad rush to standardize on One Giant API To Do Things, and programming, configuration, and deployment mechanisms that emphasize Lots of Little Fiddly Bits .

    The amount of damage you can do has some correlation to the amount of productivity you can achieve.

    (There's probably a more profound point related to the idea that there are very few system
    • Re:What I learned writing PPI (Score:2)

      by Ovid (2709)

      Don't forget lackluster abstraction possibilities, a huge standard library, the mad rush to standardize on One Giant API To Do Things ...

      And that's perhaps part of the reason why many seem to prefer Java. Yes, it can shackle programmer creativity, but then, it's harder to hang oneself while wearing shackles. If this analogy is valid, then it suggests that it really is safer for some (not all!) companies to pull the average Java programmer off the street instead of the average Perl programmer.

      However
      • Re:What I learned writing PPI (Score:1)

        by chromatic (983)

        ...we can't correct people's perception of Perl by bashing other languages.

        Certainly not, but any perception program ought to be realistic about features of Perl as compared to other languages.

        People criticize Perl for allowing people to write quick one-offs, yet that's an explicit design goal of the language! If people can do that productively, maybe Perl's easy to learn, especially for non-programmers. If Perl's easy to learn, maybe finding decent Perl programmers isn't as hard as it seems -- if y
        • Re:What I learned writing PPI (Score:1)

          by Abigail (26) on 2006.01.28 19:37 (#45926) Journal

          Every line of code you don't have to write is a line of code you don't have to debug or maintain.

          Yeah, but that doesn't say anything. Lines of codes is a non-measurement. It doesn't anything. You might as well argue that NASA is a simple shop as they only have a two vehicles to maintain - much less maintainance than the farm with five wheelbarrows.

          A single complex line of code can be much harder to debug (and maintain) than five simple ones.

          Perhaps it's possible that you need fewer programmers than you would if you used a less expressive language.

          Perhaps. However, if a Java program takes three times as much lines of codes than a Perl program, but a Java programmer writes bugfree lines of codes at four times the speed of a Perl programmer (it's not just typing speed, it's also the train of thought to come up with the line - and to debug it), the Java program is finished before the Perl program.

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