But if I were using this example to wave at Java coders to convince them that Perl will save them grief, I would make it even more verbose, lest it reenforce a notion that Perl is overly cryptic. Past a point, "Look how small we can do this with Perl!" becomes a negative. Instead, present Java programmers with something more familiar.

I agree with your sentiment. However, I want to play devils advocate for a moment... This node stemmed from a conversation I had with a professor of mine a few weeks ago, where he was touting the value of languages like Java, due to the fact that they were easy to do maintenance coding for. I vehemently disagreed with him (I am currently doing maintenance java coding...) as I feel that one of the biggest problems with languages such as Java is that the *idioms* of the language do now allow for elegant expression of algorithms without a very liberal propegation of metasyntactic variables.

So, I wrote this particular example in the most idiomatic Perl I knew how. This is my logic: Average Java programmers will program average Java idioms with an average level of skill. The companion to that is that average *Perl* programmers will program average Perl idioms with an average level of skill. What I wanted to show was that with a comparable level of skill between Java and Perl, using the idioms that were native to average programmers of *both* environments, the resulting idiomatic Perl code would be easier to maintain (from a cognitive psychology standpoint, as well as the other "benefits.")

I feel that I am, at best, an "average" perl developer, and when I read the problem description on the Java page, the exact idiom that came to mind was the one I put down on paper... as a matter of fact, I had considered asking either maverick or jeffa, who are considerably better Perl programmers than myself, for a good idea as to how to make it shorter. I fortunately quickly realized that asking wizards for help, in attempting to create a compelling example as to how the average coder would fare... was a bit of an improper turn of logic on my part!

In closing... were I trying to win over Java developers, I think I would have done something more along the lines of what you very elegantly suggest. However, I am past a point in my life where I want to win language wars, and proselytize and convert the lost :) I was more interested in showing how an "average" developer with an "average" skillset, would probably fare better in Perl...

Thx for the comment, btw...

In reply to Re: Re: Efficiency in maintenance coding... by eduardo
in thread Efficiency in maintenance coding... by eduardo

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.