in reply to On Solving a Simple Problem, and Appreciating the Complexity of Perl

Perl is complex, and that complexity can make it a difficult language to learn. ............ But it's well worth the effort because, in the end, you have the advantage of a richer, more powerful language

It reminds me of English. The big problem foreign students have in learning it, is that many words have multiple meanings, which we determine dynamically by the context in which they are used. Someone born and raised speaking english, takes it as second nature, but coming from a different culture... its a mind blower.

I'm not really a human, but I play one on earth. flash japh
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Re^2: On Solving a Simple Problem, and Appreciating the Complexity of Perl
by Scott7477 (Chaplain) on Mar 03, 2006 at 17:59 UTC
    As you say, in English "many words have multiple meanings, which we determine dynamically by the context in which they
    are used". That sounds like "operator overloading" to me...
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Re^2: On Solving a Simple Problem, and Appreciating the Complexity of Perl
by Anonymous Monk on Mar 03, 2006 at 20:10 UTC
    The problem with English is that it's a kitchen-sink language; part Latin, part French, part Anglo-Saxon, with parts borrowed from the rest of the world, too.

    Context is important; and subtle variations in word choice can change the percieved context of a sentence: consider "meat", "flesh", "body", "corpse", or "carcass".

    All refer to the something that was once alive and is now dead, but the word choice conveys a different "mood" and frames a different way of the looking at a given scenario.

    English is "rich" in the sense that there a subtle shades of meaning; and like Perl, few people are literate enough to understand most of them. It makes English hard to debug; when a non-native speaker of English makes a mistake, it's hard to know which mistake he or she made, when there are many possible choices that could be meant.

    I've heard "Jane" pronounced as "chain", "chen", "Jen", "Jan", "Shayne", or "Jay". Like Perl, there are too many valid parses for a mistake; and like Perl, this makes figuring out what someone was trying to say far too much work at times.

    --
    Ytrew,
    "who hates having to decipher the streetcar driver's accent just to recognize the name of his own street :-("

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      Update: Corrected link!

      who hates having to decipher the streetcar driver's accent just to recognize the name of his own street

      Reading that instantly reminded me of a favorite story I've related here ("a second view") before.

      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".
      In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.
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In Section Meditations