On Sat, 6 Jan 2001, Dean S Wilson wrote:
> I agree but I also think that this is one of the problems, the only
> people who see the modules are other perl coders.
indeed. there are few end-user perl apps.
in my eyes Perl is not particularly good for programs written by one
person, or in small groups working closely together, or by highly
experienced programmers. maybe this is why you don't end up with many
good, generalised Perl applications. at the least, Perl development needs
to be well managed, perhaps a little more than most.
perhaps perl6 will solve this, but it seems to me that Perl programmers
have so much choice, that every Perl hacker uses a different sub-language
within Perl. for example, i dislike Perl with map()'s that throw away
return values, and most uses of unless(), but do plenty to annoy other
programers - for example strange data hiding techniques.
well that's all negative, so i'll go on to say why Perl is the best
language for me... i believe that Perl allows human expression better
than any other language i've heard of. most importantly, i can get things
working fast. i can't use c++ to create art because there is too much
time between the idea and execution - so the idea gets stale before it can
be realised. with Perl, the creative process continues while i'm in the
coding phase; in fact, that's the only phase i have for my personal
projects...
also the amount of choice allows me to write programs that match my way of
thinking. i can write a large program and be confident that it will work
first time (apart from syntax errors), because i have been able to
construct the program in my own terms. i have control over my medium.
the impressive data munging capabilities allow me to create art quickly
and expressively, that has direct 'influences' from the external world...
for example, creating audio based on the structure of motorways taken from
GPS data, or from mailing lists.
and of course the community - CPAN is very useful but exists because of a
sharing and (mostly) friendly community. if i'm going to use other
people's code in my art this is a highly important point.
so to me, Perl is the most human computer language, and so the most
suitable language for computer art.
alex
ps Tangram and Template Toolkit are great!
--
Snack pastries are dramatic when shapes are combined
