in reply to Re^5: Google considers Perl a useful skill
in thread Google considers Perl a useful skill

Yes Bod, I noticed your curious phenomenon while working among programmers hired primarily for C++. For years, one chap kept telling everyone how much he loved Python and hated Perl ... until our coding standards were finally updated to permit Python scripts to be written, in addition to Perl.

After recently learning Python myself, I eagerly joined the code review of our Python lover's new script to see what I could learn ... and was flabbergasted to find myself pointing out embarrassing blunders in his code! :) ... you see, it turned out he "loved" Python and "hated" Perl based mostly on hearsay, not personal experience. He'd never written a Perl script in his life and his Python skills were mediocre.

BTW, Stroustrup noticed similar bigotry towards C++: "twice as many people claimed to hate C++ as had ever written even a single small C++ program".

  • Comment on Re^6: Google considers Perl a useful skill

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Re^7: Google considers Perl a useful skill
by LanX (Saint) on Oct 12, 2022 at 23:11 UTC
    Now I'm wondering how many Perl programmers might have badmouthed PHP based mostly on hearsay... ;-)

    Cheers Rolf
    (addicted to the 𐍀𐌴𐍂𐌻 Programming Language :)
    Wikisyntax for the Monastery

    PS: Hint: at least me once or twice...

      I heard a lot of anti PHP sentiment before I had any real encounter with PHP. After using PHP for a little (a few thousand lines of code maybe) I realised that all the bad mouthing I'd heard was actually quite reserved and PHP is much worse than its rep! Maybe the people bad mouthing PHP haven't actually used it?

      Optimising for fewest key strokes only makes sense transmitting to Pluto or beyond

      It was pretty early on but I was dead shocked at how low the quality of the popular PHP libraries was back in the day compared to CPAN stuff. It wasn’t just the schitzo function naming and such, the ecosphere was trash. WordPress made IE look like it was on top of security.

        WordPress made IE look like it was on top of security.

        I don't like PHP at all, but judging the language by one nightmare application is unfair. Yes, PHP might make it harder than necessary to write safe code, but there are worse offenders, like assembler or Hunchback-Gollum-Salvatore.

        Looking at perl, let's not forget Matt's Script Archive, which is a good example for bad Perl code. And while we are at it: strict is off by default. warnings are off by default. Taint mode is off by default except when running on Unix and real and effective user and/or group ID differ. Warnings and strict are off by default even then.

        And don't make me start complaining about the documentation of Exporter (1, 2) or CGI (1).

        Alexander

        --
        Today I will gladly share my knowledge and experience, for there are no sweeter words than "I told you so". ;-)
        I think that in their early years the then small Python community oriented themselves a lot at the Perl and copied concepts, like the hatred against PHP.

        Like all new religious movements they needed to position themselves against the established competition, and this was ingrained into the believe.

        Christianity did this with Judaism (godkiller, etc.), the Quran speaks at long length where Christianity went wrong.

        And Python like Islam has the tendency of claiming to have the final truth, the seal of the prophets.

        I remember seeing a blog-post of the angry backslash when the Ruby-folks tried to imitate those anti memes but now against Python.

        Having a boogeyman is very useful for a movement.

        The "paradox" is that the most vocal enemies are often the least competent. Many people which have abysmally small know how are the biggest "zealots" - another religious term BTW.

        Nobody likes to admit he's incompetent, but the "pre-formatted" Python syntax is visually more likely appealing to any static data-type (Java etc) programmer, and by imitating the anti-Perl "credo" they can pretend to be experts.

        I had my aha-moment when I met this team-leader who hated Perl and told me at long length why he loved Java for its strictness and bash for it's flexibility. It didn't make much sense.

        My theological 2cents. :)

        Cheers Rolf
        (addicted to the 𐍀𐌴𐍂𐌻 Programming Language :)
        Wikisyntax for the Monastery

      Ha ha! Is that directed at me?! :) Partially guilty I suppose because I've never written a production PHP program.

      After learning PHP for code golf, I remember being shocked while trawling through 3000 verbose, and often appallingly inconsistent, built-in functions. I may also have been influenced by a "PHP training wheels without the bike" web site back then. Though I've never written a production PHP program, I hope my perfect record in PHP golf competitions (3 victories from 3 games) gives some credibility to my PHP badmouthing. :)

        > Ha ha! Is that directed at me?! :)

        No, but I know that you are fair and considerate! :)

        Cheers Rolf
        (addicted to the 𐍀𐌴𐍂𐌻 Programming Language :)
        Wikisyntax for the Monastery