Re: Are programmers getting too lazy for perl?

I don't think programmers are getting too lazy because of perl, but the world is getting more complex. If you want to turn people towards perl, just show them something that uses LWP, and then how to do the same in C - if you can!!

It's also worth stating that everything C can do, perl can do also, even bit twiddling functions, which is surprising. The only thing that goes against perl is that it's not native, and requires a runtime.

That said, no one has ever said to me "Hey! Come and look at what I've just done in .net!!" - there are tones of people out there showing off 10-lines of perl - if you want to turn people, just show em something that fits on a single screen 80x25.

Comment on Re: Are programmers getting too lazy for perl?

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Re^2: Are programmers getting too lazy for perl? by bradenshep (Beadle) on Oct 03, 2007 at 14:40 UTC
The LWP idea is bang-on. My roommate (both of us Computer Science majors) spurned Perl despite my testimonial. But then he wanted to write a script that was right up WWW::Mechanize's alley, munging some web pages and submitting some forms. He was saying "I want to do this program, but it will be really painful and messy." And I said "I can do it in 30 lines of Perl." Of course he didn't believe me. So, whether it's LWP or WWW::Mechanize, get them thinking about some problem that would be excrutiating in another language, then show the simplicity of the Perl solution. It took me 22 lines. He uses Perl a lot now.	[reply]
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Re^2: Are programmers getting too lazy for perl? by rdfield (Priest) on Oct 03, 2007 at 15:13 UTC
SOAP::Lite works pretty well as a jaw-dropping demo, too. To accomplish something similar to a 3-line server and 2 line client with Oracle's Application server took a 250MB patch. rdfield	[reply]
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Re^2: Are programmers getting too lazy for perl? by zer (Deacon) on Oct 03, 2007 at 13:28 UTC
yea i have done that and it is impressive for the most part. Slowly bit by bit perl is going to take over the world... (funny because lispers have been saying that for the longest time)	[reply]
Re^2: Are programmers getting too lazy for perl? by flexo (Sexton) on Dec 11, 2007 at 18:07 UTC
If you want to turn people towards perl, just show them something that uses LWP, and then how to do the same in C - if you can!! Right there is actually one place where Perl could improve its reputation: Perl advocates need to stop comparing Perl to C. It made sense 10 years ago, but these days, if you want to be taken seriously, comparisons need to be made with languages that a prospective user might use instead of Perl. Namely, Python, Java, and maybe Ruby. Nowadays, if you compare Perl to C, it looks like you're trying to avoid the real competition.	[reply]
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