In one of my classes (college student here), we're writing programs that require a lot of matrix math. The professor said we can use any language we want but strongly advised us to use Matlab. Consequently, everyone in the class has opted to use Matlab or C++.... except me. As a student, I can't afford the $100 for the "reduced price" student edition of Matlab to use it for just one class. Also, I'm in love with perl.
When I told the professor of my decision, both he and the TA mocked me for it, trying to actually tell me that perl is only for text parsing. I ended up going ahead and doing the first project in Perl, and was penalized for it...

My question is for anyone that opts to use perl in any field dominated by other languages. Does anyone else encounter ignorant stereotypes and criticism of perl?

It's too bad that companies that have a stake in a particular language will spend so much money ensuring that new programmers will learn in their language. Both Mathworks (Matlab's creator) and Microsoft donate so much money and free software to my university. On a funny side note, Apple gives free Macintoshes to the school, so the lab technicians have to install all kinds of crazy software to get the free programs to run on the free Macs.

In reply to Stereotypes about perl by nherdboi

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