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Perl, Hackers Tool? and a good Development Language?

by shirkdog_perl (Beadle)
on Mar 12, 2003 at 18:42 UTC ( [id://242463]=perlmeditation: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??

I am into security, and in the process of searching around, alot of people have found clever ways of using perl as a Security/Hacking tool. I just find myself wondering the best ways of going about this. I am reading up on Object Oriented Perl with the Conway Book and creating a mindset to develop applications that can be reused. I am wondering if there is anyone who thinks perl is just for hacking language in the monestary. Everytime I whip out the camel, I am always told "Yeah but isn't perl hard to maintain" Then I speak as a zealot.

I just wondering (however I will incite a riot and the heavens will crash upon me)

I believe Perl can be structed like Java but cooler.

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
(jeffa) Re: Perl, Hackers Tool? and a good Development Language?
by jeffa (Bishop) on Mar 12, 2003 at 19:03 UTC

    One of the professors at the university i attend tells his Programming Theory class "Perl is a 'write-only' language" and they (basically) should avoid it. He then proceedes to teach them PHP ... (subtext: some folks just don't get it)

    I say this. "Sure, Perl is <insert complaint of day>!" And then i go back to getting lots of stuff done with Perl. Anything from silly scripts that amuse me to full blown mod_perl database front-ends.

    On the "sub-note", i think the book you mention is very excellent. You should also tear apart CPAN modules to see how they solve the problem of developing reusable code. I have not read samtregar's new book ($) , but i imagine it will be worth the money (and then some for newbies).

    jeffa

    L-LL-L--L-LL-L--L-LL-L--
    -R--R-RR-R--R-RR-R--R-RR
    B--B--B--B--B--B--B--B--
    H---H---H---H---H---H---
    (the triplet paradiddle with high-hat)
    
      tells his Programming Theory class "Perl is a 'write-only' language" and they (basically) should avoid it.

      Glad to see this isn't limited to my university, maybe my degree will still be worth something :)

Re: Perl, Hackers Tool? and a good Development Language?
by dragonchild (Archbishop) on Mar 12, 2003 at 19:16 UTC
    Structured is as structured does. I find C++ extremely hard to develop in and maintain. All that crap about memory management and list manipulation that I have to do by hand. Feh. Whatever!

    Give me a

    • typeless
    • functional-capable
    • oo-capable
    • manage-my-memory-for-me
    • gives-me-data-structures-that-I-think-in
    • can-drop-down-to-C
    • glues-with-everything
    • runs-on-anything (including C-64 and Palm)
    • rapid-development
    • most-of-my-work-is-done-for-me-and-better-than-I-could-do
    • I-can-make-a-difference
    • has-24/7-support-that-actually-knows-something
    language any day.

    Another Point - there was an obfuscated-C contest for at least 20 years before one was created for Perl.

    Yet Another Point - these same arguments were made about going from ASM to Pascal, back in the early 80's.

    Yet Another Point (Continued) (YAPC?) - COBOL, back in the day, was written with an eye to _not_ being maintained. That's why they used 2-digit years. "You mean my program wasn't retired in five years?!?"

    ------
    We are the carpenters and bricklayers of the Information Age.

    Don't go borrowing trouble. For programmers, this means Worry only about what you need to implement.

    Please remember that I'm crufty and crochety. All opinions are purely mine and all code is untested, unless otherwise specified.

      I will take my wisdom and meditate for 16 years until I emerge from my cave...

      A Perl Monk...

Re: Perl, Hackers Tool? and a good Development Language?
by perrin (Chancellor) on Mar 12, 2003 at 19:53 UTC
    Bad code is hard to maintain. Language choice is orthogonal to quality of code.
      Still, in some languages it's easier to write bad code than in other languages. And in other languages it's hard to write maintainable code. It's much harder to write maintainable code in languages like Brainfuck, Ook or Chef (all of which run on Parrot, IIRC), let alone languages like INTERCAL or Befunge, than it is to do so in Perl. OTOH, I believe it's easier to write bad code in Perl than it is in Python. But note that the latter sentence does not imply it's harder to write good maintainable code in Perl that it's in Python.

      Abigail

        But note that the latter sentence does not imply it's harder to write good maintainable code in Perl that it's in Python.

        That's a good one. I'd even go as far as saying it doesn't imply you can write better code in python than you can in perl. (Note that this statement is based on logical inferrence, not knowledge of python.)

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