I almost think this is not worth posting, because I'm afraid readers won't understand what I'm thinking. I've felt a vague, growing dissatisfaction with Perl 5. At the same time, I've been reading the Perl Apocalypses with something like a religious fervor. I need some spiritual guidance, here.

In fact, I think it all began around the same time I learned of Perl6. A lot happened those first couple weeks of January. I also learned about Arc, and started reconsidering Python, and began to dislike Java. I consider this all to be a major change in my attitude of the last 2 or 3 years: I was in a state of bliss with Perl and Java in my toolbelt.

No longer. I am restless. Java's objectcentrism blocks my path often, while Perl's write-only tendencies build in a subtle, logarithmic curve of complexity in my mind. In both cases I suspect language design contributes to the problem. I also understand that I have weaknesses in my design skills which, if corrected properly, might make me maximally prolific in the languages I use... but my fastidious nature refuses to be satisfied. Maybe I'm just seeking the impossible (nothing wrong with that). Maybe I'm just Lazy.

Python strikes me as klunky like Java, which means there might be no reason at all to use it. But I've heard it is readable -- exceedingly so, and writable -- again, exceedingly so. So I'll check it out and see what I like about it and what I hate about it. This represents a whole attitude change that I see as healthy, yet I don't understand how this change happened, nor why the attitude was the way it was before. I don't feel any different.

What is going on? I want to know how close I am to heresy with this! And most of all, I want to know why I feel like I'm nailing theses to the Wittenburg church's door when I post this note!?

rje

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Nailing my head to the Door
by chromatic (Archbishop) on Feb 07, 2002 at 00:50 UTC
    Readability (or maintainability) is a bugaboo not limited to Perl. (If you're primarily concerned about the ugliness of dereferencing, brother hand me a hammer!)

    Any language that lets you choose your own names (and indentation, line breaks, et cetera) will allow you to write hard-to-maintain code. Any language that provides more than one way to accomplish something allows coders to pick, occasionally, the worst approach.

    Conversely, any language that promises to make your code beautiful, expressive, efficacious, and easily maintained is either lying, hiding something, or suitable only for one sort of person doing one sort of task. (Some people hate Perl's use of sigils to denote variable "type" and "context". I like it. Some people think Ruby is eminently readable. I dislike the sigils used to denote types of variables.)

    It's my opinion that syntax issues are less important than good programming habits (though there are some people who swear by LISP's postfix, and others who like indirect object notation, Larry forgive them!). That's not to say that certain syntaxes don't make things easier than others -- and you may find that another language fits you better than the others.

    That's fine -- but be aware that readability and maintainability have a great deal to do with your habits and knowledge.

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Re (tilly) 1: Nailing my head to the Door
by tilly (Archbishop) on Feb 12, 2002 at 01:58 UTC
    For your post to be heresy, there must be dogma which you are rejecting.

    I don't know what dogma that would be since I don't subscribe to any dogma which you are threatening.

    In fact quite the reverse. I would encourage you to learn other languages. You are bound to learn things which will help you. For instance learning Ruby taught me lessons about design that have helped my Perl.

    You may learn that Perl is not the right language for you. In which case it is better to learn that now than it is to wait several more years and develop some bitterness towards Perl. You may learn that in retrospect Perl wasn't so bad for you after all, which is a lesson that you can't learn from just learning a bunch more Perl. Either way it is better for you and for Perl for you to learn those lessons sooner rather than later.

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Re: Nailing my head to the Door
by theguvnor (Chaplain) on Feb 08, 2002 at 04:00 UTC

    Re: readability: if you like Python's rigidly enforced formatting, there's nothing stopping you from writing your code in a similar style with Perl - who says you need to use all the shortcuts and "line noise" (I hate that epithet) that Perl allows??

    Re: feelings of guilt over "heretical" non-perl thoughts: I think the Perl community has a slight tendency to need reassurance, because perl doesn't get the 'big name' recognition. My suggestion: use whatever feels right for you and don't worry about 'heresy'....

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