use Perl

• Evangelism? (Score:1)

  by DAxelrod (4649) on 2006.10.10 11:43 (#50925) Journal

  I, too wondered about the absence of Larry Wall. He writes wonderfully, and his answers to those questions might provide some insight.
  
  That said, the author of the article says "Not everyone responded to my e-mail, not everyone agreed to answer the questions". Given that, do we actually know who was asked?
  
  Secondly, I may be reading what you wrote unfairly, but it sounds like the primary reason that you want to promote Perl is so that you have job security and don't have to learn other languages. While I certainly have selfish reasons for promoting Perl, I'm not sure if they're the best way to do it, and they're not my only reasons. People should use Perl if and when it's appropriate to what they're doing and it will help them.
  
  Promoting Perl past that would be a disservice, I think. An author of severely-memory-constrained embedded firmware might try using Perl and saying "This sucks!" And they would be right, because a hammer is horrible at tightening screws.

  Reply to This

  • Re: (Score:1)

    by DAxelrod (4649)

    Rereading my comment, I'm concerned that I came off differently than I intended. I did not mean to call you selfish, as I've seen plenty of examples of your generosity. I appologize if I came off as insulting. That was not my intent.
    
    Rather, I meant only that there are reasons to promote Perl that benefit more people at the same time. I want people to use Perl because it helps them, and if it helps me too, well that's awesome.
    
    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Purdy (2383)

      It's all good ... thanks for the thoughtful follow-up. :)
  • Re: (Score:2)

    by Purdy (2383)

    *laugh* - yeah, job security is great stuff! My uncle's 60 and a COBOL programmer who has reached the end of his shelf-life. :( I've personally seen what the end of the road looks like and it ain't pretty.
    
    That said, I agree - Perl isn't for everything. Device drivers, firmware and low-level foundational pieces aside, when you're faced with an algorithm problem, you should be able to use the language you're most familiar with.
    
    For example, I took a look at the first practice room problem in TopCoder, which
    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Purdy (2383)

      Posted too quickly ;)

      These may look like slights now, but these type of examples build until eventually Perl is no longer available anywhere.

      Disclaimer: Yeah, that's fatalistic and should be taken w/ a grain of salt. ;)