Re: What's so unique about Perl?

What's so special/unique/good in that perl

Perl evolved to solve real world problems, not satisfy some overarching theoretical ideal.

It has bits which are messy and inconvenient, because the world is messy and inconvenient, but mostly what you need to write most everyday programs (the easy ones and the hard ones) is right there in the base language.

And when you need to do something that's actually difficult, is has the power to do that to, though you might have to look a little harder to find it.

Just the right mix of the concrete and the abstract to allow you to do what needs to be done, without jumping through the hoops of theoretical or notational purity.

Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.

Lingua non convalesco, consenesco et abolesco. -- Rule 1 has a caveat! -- Who broke the cabal?

"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".

The "good enough" maybe good enough for the now, and perfection maybe unobtainable, but that should not preclude us from striving for perfection, when time, circumstance or desire allow.

Comment on Re: What's so unique about Perl?

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Re^2: What's so unique about Perl? by greenFox (Vicar) on Jul 05, 2005 at 04:56 UTC
Perl evolved to solve real world problems I think this is Perl's strength. I remember reading an article about Perl's design by Larry Wall where he talked about adding shortcuts for the things programmers need to do often. I can't find where I read it originally but these two articles both mention the idea- "When they first built the University of California at Irvine campus, they just put the buildings in. They did not put any sidewalks, they just planted grass. The next year, they came back and built the sidewalks where the trails were in the grass. Perl is that kind of a language. It is not designed from first principles. Perl is those sidewalks in the grass. Those trails that were there before were the previous computer languages that Perl has borrowed ideas from. And Perl has unashamedly borrowed ideas from many, many different languages. Those paths can go diagonally. We want shortcuts. Sometimes we want to be able to do the orthogonal thing, so Perl generally allows the orthogonal approach also. But it also allows a certain number of shortcuts, and being able to insert those shortcuts is part of that evolutionary thing." -Larry Wall -- Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Seek what they sought. -Basho	[reply]

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Re^2: What's so unique about Perl?
by greenFox (Vicar) on Jul 05, 2005 at 04:56 UTC

Perl evolved to solve real world problems

I think this is Perl's strength. I remember reading an article about Perl's design by Larry Wall where he talked about adding shortcuts for the things programmers need to do often. I can't find where I read it originally but these two articles both mention the idea-

"When they first built the University of California at Irvine campus, they just put the buildings in. They did not put any sidewalks, they just planted grass. The next year, they came back and built the sidewalks where the trails were in the grass. Perl is that kind of a language. It is not designed from first principles. Perl is those sidewalks in the grass. Those trails that were there before were the previous computer languages that Perl has borrowed ideas from. And Perl has unashamedly borrowed ideas from many, many different languages. Those paths can go diagonally. We want shortcuts. Sometimes we want to be able to do the orthogonal thing, so Perl generally allows the orthogonal approach also. But it also allows a certain number of shortcuts, and being able to insert those shortcuts is part of that evolutionary thing." -Larry Wall

--
Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Seek what they sought. -Basho

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