Re^4: Can Perl do anything Java can do?

I don't have a problem with people answering at different levels of abstraction.

Neither do I. But the path of abstraction should be visible, and understandable. The post from merlyn you cite is not so much about abstraction, but about how skilled guessing works: not presuming too much, and not sending off people with a premature answer that really doesn't help solve X or Y entirely.

Throwing in consultancy jargon quotes from a random bullshit bingo chart which might, by several twists of the mind, yield some remote connection to the problem at hand is not that sort of abstraction, or skilled guessing. It is throwing shiny shingles on a fishing line into the river - it is trolling: trolling with baits, and more often than not, they are toxic.

perl -le'print map{pack c,($-++?1:13)+ord}split//,ESEL'

Comment on Re^4: Can Perl do anything Java can do?

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re^5: Can Perl do anything Java can do? by jdporter (Paladin) on Jul 19, 2017 at 19:16 UTC
I agree with what you're saying generally, but in this particular instance I think your complaint doesn't stick. While his comment was not written with the kind of linguistic precision and technical rigor we might use (or might expect from an experienced consultant), I think his points were actually quite cogent.	[reply]
Re^6: Can Perl do anything Java can do? by shmem (Chancellor) on Jul 19, 2017 at 20:25 UTC
I think his points were actually quite cogent. Quite cogent, yes, but poisoned. This is the problem all the time. Quoting Re: Can Perl do anything Java can do?: The Java language is much heavier, but at the same time it has many features that Perl (5, at least) does not even consider: strong typing, compile-time checking, a more robust class implementation, and so on and on and on. This is, putting mildly, not quite accurate: "does not even consider"? Considerable amount of brain cell squeezing was put into making loose typing work, that's true; but another big amount of brain cell rubbing was poured into making strong typing possible. The default is loose typing, sure. But that doesn't mean that perl does not even consider strong typing. One might wave that off as not being up to technical rigor - I call such statements toxic. They are purporting prejudices invalidated long ago. So, while actually quite cogent this post is another example of the mixture: common-place chaff, one or two grains of wheat, and at least one ergot (sclerotium clavus or secale cornutum of Claviceps purpurea) which poisons the whole dough. Meditations about the fungus aspect are left as an excercise to the reader. update: revision and links for the fungus part perl -le'print map{pack c,($-++?1:13)+ord}split//,ESEL'	[reply]