use Perl

• What cultural values do we have? (Score:1)

  by btilly (5037)

  Back in the 90s there was a Perl programmer who thought as you are encouraging people to think now. Nice young kid, he set out to make useful applications in Perl. They solved real problems. They were easy to install. They were easy to customize. Those were his criteria, and by those criteria he succeeded brilliantly.
  
  The Perl community hated him. For years afterwards his name has been vilified. We've complained horribly about the bad impression he gave Perl. We still complain about that.
  
  Why? Becaus
  • Re: (Score:2)

    by schwern (1528)

    The trick is, how do you make code easy to install while remaining sane and modular? I think we can do better than throwing out modularity and backsliding to single file installs.
    • Re:What cultural values do we have? (Score:1)

      by btilly (5037) on 2008.06.18 16:56 (#63463) Journal

      We can make it more sane and modular than single file installs, but not without making the install process more complicated than a single file install is.
      
      That said, we've gone a long ways towards making things simpler. Just compare how difficult it is to get a Perl library installed versus installing a useful Java library. We can make it simpler still, but Perl already has a pretty good story to tell.
      
      However it is never going to be as simple as a single file install. It just ain't going to happen unless we're willing to compromise our values.

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