Following the Buddha thread a little further... The first thing most VB Prog'ers I know say when I show them a bit 'o Perl (the little bit I know) is "It looks like less typing, but so sparse and hard to read". (Or something like that...) I think Perl is similar to Zen painting. At first you paint much more than you need to, filling in with much detail and busy brushstrokes. But as you become more adept, your 'brushstrokes' gain clarity and conciseness; you are able to convey much more with a brevity that can astound the 'paint by numbers' artists of the Prog'ers world. Those who say 'Perl is write-only' have yet to comprehend that the brevity they find so confusing is the essential element that allows Perl as a language to 'get out of your way' so you can think about the goal of the program and not the language itself. I think this is one reason LW modeled Perl on natural languges; you don't usually think about rules of grammer before you speak. But, that's just an opinion, I could be wrong...

In reply to Perl as Zen Painting by allogenes

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