It's that day again, my Monk Day. I'm up to 22 years on this site, and as the title says, probably 25 years noodling around with Perl. What a long, strange trip it's been.

I still host the monthly Perl Mongers monthly meeting in Toronto, and our discussion in November edged over to which editor people used. Like anything else, you use whatever tool works best for you. I'm very impressed by people who use emacs -- it seems insanely complicated. Using tmux with one panel as an editor and another as a bash prompt, is about as complicated as I get.

Perl's the same situation -- if it's a tool you like and can get things done with, great. If there's a new shiny thing you prefer, great. I'm too old to be swayed by people saying, "Oh, no one uses Perl anymore." I use it, thus negating their generalization.

Dare I say .. here's to another 22 years? :)

Edit: OK, I got my quip this time: 

Happy Monkday!!1!
You've been here 22 invigorating years.
Did you make a wish?

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Nope, no wish. Just a reminder that I hear in my head, now and again: "Your fear is boring." Just keep moving.

Also, Happy Winter Solstice, for all those that observe.

Alex / talexb / Toronto

Thanks PJ. We owe you so much. Groklaw -- RIP -- 2003 to 2013.

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: 22 years, and about a quarter century of Perl
by roho (Bishop) on Dec 13, 2023 at 05:48 UTC
    Congratulations talexb on your longevity!

    "It's not how hard you work, it's how much you get done."

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Re: 22 years, and about a quarter century of Perl
by eyepopslikeamosquito (Archbishop) on Dec 13, 2023 at 07:48 UTC

    I re-season this pan once in a while, but after 25 years use, it doesn't need it much. It's a well-used, well-loved pan, and one of my favourites.

    -- from Perl is my cast iron pan by talexb

    talexb, after 22 years here, you don't need much. You are a well-used, well-loved monk, and one of my favourites.

    Like your cast iron pan 🍳 here's hoping you'll be around, useful as ever, for a long time to come. 

    👁️🍾👍🦟
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        Perl is my cast iron pan

      My awesome girlfriend (at the time) made me up a T-shirt with that phrase. I need to get an image of that up here somehow. :)

      Alex / talexb / Toronto

      Thanks PJ. We owe you so much. Groklaw -- RIP -- 2003 to 2013.

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Re: 22 years, and about a quarter century of Perl
by helgi (Hermit) on Dec 18, 2023 at 14:45 UTC
    Hello talexb. I see that I've also been here for 22 years and yes, I've been using Perl for about 25, like you.

    After a 20 year stint as a sysadmin, I'm back in bioinformatics and using Perl every day. Yes, I know the cool kids all use Python these days, but I'm much quicker doing things in Perl.


    --
    Regards,
    Helgi Briem
    hbriem AT gmail DOT com
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        Yes, I was 10 and an avid chess player in 1972 when we hosted the Match of the Century.

        But it gets better. My uncle Sæmundur Pálsson (my father's identical twin) was Fischer's best friend and "bodyguard" during the match and travelled with him for a few months afterwards.

        After the match was over, Fischer came to my home for dinner, on my 10th birthday. I, and my brother and sister, each played a couple of games with him, which I have to admit, he won handily. He was a weird guy and got on better with us kids than with the grownups. There are photos floating around the internet from him playing with us kids (wearing pyjamas).

        Facebook photo

        Left to right: My brother Páll, Bobby Fischer, my cousin Ásgeir, uncle Sæmi, me, sister Iðunn.

        At the time, the local kids would play chess in the local library and I was probably around 3rd best there. However, during and after the Fischer-Spassky match, there was an explosion in the popularity of chess and several kids in the neighbourhood turned out to have (a lot) more talent for chess than I had. I was quickly relegated to the mid-ranks of the library chess group and never recovered my previous standing. Two of the library players, Jón L. Árnason and Margeir Pétursson, went on to become grand masters.

        In 2004, Fischer was arrested in Japan. The Icelandic government petitioned for his release and in 2005 my uncle Sæmi went to Japan to pick him up. He lived here in Iceland until his death in 2008. He was even stranger than when he was younger. My father and Sæmi helped him out a lot and did him all sorts of favours, sorting out his life and affairs. He came to our home a couple of times, including my father and uncle's 70th birthday. He was very difficult to talk to, very anti-semitic and full of conspiracy theories and all sorts of nonsense.

        No, I haven't been to see the museum or the grave. I'm not really into memorabilia.

        It's a little hard for a local to recommend sites that tourists will like. But most of the usual ones are pretty good but tend to be crowded, especially the really accessible sites in the south of the country.


        --
        Regards,
        Helgi Briem
        hbriem AT gmail DOT com
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        Yes, I know the cool kids all use Python these days, but I'm much quicker doing things in Perl.

      Yup -- the cool kids are gonna use whatever they use -- I'm content with the last technical choice I made in languages. I'me very happy with the language, and thrilled to be part of this excellent community. Such an odd, wonderful group. :)

      Alex / talexb / Toronto

      Thanks PJ. We owe you so much. Groklaw -- RIP -- 2003 to 2013.

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      I'm back in bioinformatics and using Perl every day. Yes, I know the cool kids all use Python these days, but I'm much quicker doing things in Perl.

      Good to know - I've added you to my list of Perl Monks interested in science (which also discusses programming language adoption). 

      👁️🍾👍🦟
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Re: 22 years, and about a quarter century of Perl
by harangzsolt33 (Deacon) on Dec 14, 2023 at 13:55 UTC
    I have been using Notepad2 on Windows XP for a long time now. What I really like about it is that it's fast, has lots of features, and pressing Ctrl+L runs the script immediately. The entire program consists of two files : Notepad2.ini and Notepad2.exe (total size: 775 KB).

    On Linux, Notepad2 is slow and glitchy with wine, so I use other things like Mousepad or Geany or whatever comes preinstalled with the distro. My three favorite distros are Slitaz, Lubuntu, and Slackware.

    At one point, I decided to write my own perl editor in HTML and JavaScript (it's a HTA application in Windows), but I didn't know how to add syntax highlighting while the text is being edited. When the text is displayed (readonly), it's easy to add syntax highlighting, but when it's in a textarea box, and the user can edit things, it gets complicated. I don't know how to do that. Without the syntax highlighting, it's no good. Then the other downside of HTA app is that it will only work in Windows or in a web browser, so it's quite limited.

[reply]
        I have been using Notepad2 on Windows XP for a long time now.

      I used Komodo Edit for ever but can't get it to run or compile on Apple silicon or some tries at VM. Found Geany on Raspberry Pi and also on Homebrew for macOS. Geany is awesome. The sidebar symbol tab that navigates code by clicking sub names is paradise. The "Overview" plugin adds adds that extra dimension to navigation. Geany wants to be configured for maximum effect: 

      Edit > Settings
View > Change Color Scheme
Tools > Plugin Manager

Some fun plugins:
Addons
Export
File Browser
HTML Characters
Line Operations
Lipsum
Mini Script
Overview
Save Actions
Split Window
Tableconvert
TreeBrowser

      Kudos on attempting to write your own editor with real time syntax highlighting! What I miss about Komodo is the real time bug detection for Perl, that was crazy. But it still runs on Intel...

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