Hi Georgios, On Sun, 03 Feb 2013 22:51:28 +0100 Georgios Magklaras <georg...@biotek.uio.no> wrote:
> On 31/01/13 09:10, Johan Vromans wrote: > > http://developers.slashdot.org/story/13/01/29/0235220/perls-glory-days-are-behind-it-but-it-isnt-going-anywhere > > > > We know we suck at marketing, but is there anything we are going to do > > about it? > > > > -- Johan > Did C ever make serious money? What was the evolution rate of C? Is C or > not the basis of systems programming? > > My point is that a good language withstands time because its useful. > Perl (5) is in use and will be in use. Not because is bad/good and/or > Perl 6 will come into place, but due to a fact it has a domain. And Perl > has a domain not because other languages cannot do what Perl does, but > due to the fact they cannot do it the WAY Perl does. > > The way a language is constructed semantically has a one to one > correspondence with the way your brain works. For some people, Perl's > syntax hits a sweet spot and they stick to it. For others, it is > confusing, alien and can - apparently - make you a bad programmer (I > have seen bad programmers in every programming language I know, so > that's not a characteristic of Perl). > > In the same way, people that parallel program, work with Intel's > extensions/compilers, CUDA and/or Erlang. Try to convince an Erlang > programmer that his language is obsolete. They will laugh at you and > point out many examples. > > Conclusion: A language is walking down the road of obsolescence when its > semantic structure becomes irrelevant to the way people think and its > domain dies. Neither of that is true for Perl (5) and the whole shebang > has very little to do with Perl 6. Frankly, I do not see any original > point in this article, IMHO. > Have not read the original article, but I agree. BTW, on ##programming on Freenode, people have been bitching about every language under the sun. My signature quote this time is relevant, and is taken from http://www.shlomifish.org/humour/bits/COBOL-the-New-Age-Programming-Language/ , as a reference to Python’s home page where they used to boast that “NASA uses COBOL” which while technically true, is not fully honest, because given NASA’s history, budget, and diversity, it uses a very large number of old and new programming languages and other technologies. Also see: * http://xkcd.com/519/ ( Moreover, NASA’s software development unit is just the tip of the iceberg. ) But I guess I should not give a Midrash ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midrash ; “study” - not “mid-rash” ) to a joke. Regards, Shlomi Fish -- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Shlomi Fish http://www.shlomifish.org/ Rethinking CPAN - http://shlom.in/rethinking-cpan NASA Uses COBOL. Please reply to list if it's a mailing list post - http://shlom.in/reply .
