While reading about Lego and Playmobil, in a usenet group I read:

When we just want to "play", scenarios/stories, we play with the Playmobil (or, rarely the Lego sets that are already/still built)

When we want to "create things", people, space ships, buildings, build scenarios, we use Lego.

Upon noticing the create/play ratio, I immediately thought of Perl and PHP :)

Like any metaphor, it won't be very solid, but I found another quote that I think could just as well be about Perl/PHP as Lego/Playmobil:

Playmobil is mostly modeling. While you can add items to it, they are all "Playmobilized" versions of actual items. The detail is incredible, but customization is limited, and you're limited in what you can create with it. You're limited to the set designer's imagination.

Lego is a building toy. While items may not look as finished, there's a larger ability to customise and "tweak" the sets to your liking. Plus, you can rebuild a set to whatever you want, add to sets to create your own items, and construct things that only exist in your imagination.

I just wanted to let you know. Don't take it too seriously, please :)

If you can find more Lego/Playmobil quotes that apply to Perl and PHP (or maybe other toys and other languages?) too, please share them. I'll be collecting the best ones at http://juerd.nl/site.plp/perl_lego.

Juerd # { site => 'juerd.nl', plp_site => 'plp.juerd.nl', do_not_use => 'spamtrap' }

In reply to Perl is Lego, PHP is Playmobil (don't take too seriously) by Juerd

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