in reply to Re^2: "Why Perl is better than Java & .NET" article.
in thread "Why Perl is better than Java & .NET" article.

Both Java and .Net have large core libraries for GUI programming. Perl Tk, on the other hand, is a fragile, optional installation. Both Java and .Net have a stable (though arguably worse-is-better) threading system, where ithreads still have implementation issues and rough edges.

I've written GUI applications in Java and I've written GUI applications in Perl Tk. There are advantages and disadvantages to both, completely unrelated to the syntax and semantics of the language. Certainly it's possible to write similar applications in both languages, or with a different toolkit such as SWT or wxWidgets.

Still, you're guilty of bad advocacy at the least if you ignore that practical GUI programming in Perl is harder than it ought to be.

  • Comment on Re^3: "Why Perl is better than Java & .NET" article.

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Re^4: "Why Perl is better than Java & .NET" article.
by tomazos (Deacon) on Jul 21, 2005 at 21:32 UTC
    I'm asking for information, and offering a theory up. Not advocating anything yet.

    The GUI programming I've personally done has been in platform specific libraries to Mac OS, Mac OS X and Windows XP. I don't know much about cross-platform GUI development. It is my impression it isn't really there yet. Having said that I have tinkered with Perl/Tk and AWT/Swing.

    So is that a consensus among the Perl community? That Perl/Tk as a GUI programming language and is fragile? I thought Tcl/Tk has been around and under constant development for many years. I didn't know we lost that much by swapping out Tcl for Perl?

    -Andrew.


    Andrew Tomazos  |  andrew@tomazos.com  |  www.tomazos.com

      You say:

      I'm asking for information, and offering a theory up. Not advocating anything yet.
      Well you said at the start of this:
      I'm considering doing something monumentally stupid and writing a "Why Perl is better and more popular than Java & .NET" article
      I think the point is that people are encouraging you to think about why you might not want to do this.

      /J\

      So is that a consensus among the Perl community?

      No. It's my opinion. I think it's an informed opinion, but I don't want to put it forward as anything other than my informed opinion.

      That Perl/Tk as a GUI programming language and is fragile?

      I mean that I consider it fragile to install. It's a big, complicated project that has to do many complex things. I've seen some of how it does what it does. I don't know if I'd like the internals of SWT, Swing, or the .Net replacement for MFC any more either -- but being installed as part of the base package (or at least being installed as binaries) is a huge advantage.

      I'm asking for information, and offering a theory up. Not advocating anything yet.
      You're not informed enough concot a theory.