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Re^2: The Future of Perl 5

by Anonymous Monk
on Aug 19, 2018 at 15:44 UTC ( [id://1220637]=note: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??


in reply to Re: The Future of Perl 5
in thread The Future of Perl 5

I love any efforts to advance Perl and all involved but Ovid does this charming and polite self-deprecating thing I see a lot online in the language wars that seems contradictory and counter productive in terms of rhetoric and mindset.

Perl is criticized for being too verbose and hard to read.

Perl is then compared to some other less potent language with no sigils or lexical variables or lots of other cool features that require traditional language concepts such as punctuation.

Perl is then berated for being longer and more complex than the perl-for-idiots reinvented-wheel that has been completely golfed, making it easier to read for an expert, but potentially much harder to understand in practice--due to increased cognitive load of having to keep all the missing punctuation in your head so the language can appear to be "pretty" like makeup or plastic surgery for your brain!

Almost every common criticism of Perl can be turned around and touted as the feature it actually is.

Run this 3 point program to turn this thing around, in your head, and in reality:
1. Perl's verbosity, and lack thereof, enhances understandability. 2. Perl sigils are the best invention since rn and patch; Because they are so meaningful and context dependent; Beautiful symbols everyone knows and loves: $, @, %. 3. Perl 5 is PERFECT (but there's always room for improvement)!

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