I'm the only Perl guy in our department and the others have been using SPITBOL for years. There has been a recent suggestion by the uppers to move all programming to Perl and this has caused quite a stir. I cannot find any detailed comparisons between the two--I don't know SPITBOL and they don't know Perl.
Wikipedia tells me that "well-written programs compiled using the SPITBOL implementation of the SNOBOL4 programming language are often ten or more times faster in execution than a corresponding Perl program." Keep in mind that this statement is marked with "citation needed."
Can any one provide me with a comparison of the two, whether from links or experience?
Thanks.