Whoa. Now this is a well written, well conceived,
well organized article. I'd like to see this on
http://perl.com. It gives a better taste of what
patterns are about than any introduction I've seen.
I don't really have anything new to say that I haven't
already said, or someone hasn't said better, but I should
make my position known on the whole deal.
Go to the bookstore and look at the computer
language section. The difference between the style of
the books is amazing. PHP has nothing but intro books,
and the programmers apparently lose interest in the
language there. Java has leigons of books on design,
correctness, and style: "Enterprise Java", Java
certification manuals, "Bitter Java" and loads of other
patterns-in-Java books. Perl "learning" books dominate,
in their various permutations: "Learn Web Programming
with Perl", "Learning Perl on Win32 Systems",
"Perl for System Administration",
"Perl for Web Site Management",
"Beginning Perl for Bioinformatics". Non-intro books
are around too, but they either give their subject
a far more simple treatment than C - "Mastering
Algorithms with Perl" has very few algorithms, very
little theory, and my "Introduction to Algorithms"
(which is anything but an introduction) has about a
factor of 10 more girth than the Perl book and is
packed full of dense technical explanations and ultra-
concise, difficult to grok examples. Someone
looking down their nose on PHP could easily lump
Perl and Perl programmers into the same category:
hacks who don't care a whit about what they do, just
in it to make a quick paycheck at the expense of their
clients, whom they leave with mountains of crud.
No reguard for the art. Arrogent ignorant little kids.
I have to agree that the 3 perl.com design patterns
articles kind of waved their hands and dismissed
patterns, but at the same time, they dismissed design
in general. Most perlers I know can handle a serious
treatment of any subject (and would buy more books
if publishers took Perl as seriously as they took
Java, in fact). A lot of Perlers I don't know won't
bother to crack the covers of the free online copy
of "Beginning Perl" (hello #perlhelp newbies!). Because
this "perl programmers are ignorant arrogant kids"
perception is true for a portion of the population,
I don't think we should all be subjected to it.
To be fair to Perl book publishers, the books are
usually far more pragmatic than the thick C tomes, but
that doesn't mean that they can't give the subject a
serious treatment.
I like Perl a lot. Probably for different reasons than
you. I like B::Generate. I like self-modifying code,
clever hacks, Acme::, and all of the idioms. But
I also like being able to use Perl for work, and write
good, clean, serious Perl that scales and people can
work on. But I don't get that chance. I have to work
in Java. Because of the half-true perception that Perl
programmers are arrogant, ignorant kids.
-scott
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