Interesting... My conclusions from reading the write up are slightly different, in that this is highlighting a culture clash, between academics and the Perl community.
Do we have any representative in the academic world who are eloquent speakers? I have a lot of respect for Dan Sugalski, as he is technically brilliant and very helpful - a shame the audience was not impressed. I see myself more as a bridgehead between the Perl community and the commercial world. I _love_ open source software, but it is difficult persuading colleagues and clients of the benefits. This is a different battle - I digress. Incidentally, regarding closures and iterators, Jensen invented a construct (Jensen's Device) in Algol-60 which implemented iterators using Algol's 'call by name' parameter passing mechanism to the full. This allowed polymorphism before the term had been coined, and before the terms 'object orientation' and 'abstract data type' has also been coined. To summarise, I think everyone can benefit by being receptive to others' ideas. If the academics or Perlsters are closing their minds to other communities, they will miss the good ideas. Ivor. -----Original Message----- From: Leon Brocard [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: 03 January 2002 10:43 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Academics / Real World The following is a write up of the Little Languages Workshop that Simon and Dan went to. At the time, they told us it got a little flamey. This supports the fact: http://www.ddj.com/documents/s=2287/ddj0202a/0202a.htm So, is Perl part of the "Worse is Better" crowd? Why did the academics think that we hadn't done our research? Why can't academics actually do something to help the real world rather than play with toy languages that nobody actually uses? Leon ps glad to be back -- Leon Brocard.............................http://www.astray.com/ Nanoware...............................http://www.nanoware.org/ ... We all live in a yellow subroutine. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The information contained in this e-mail is confidential and solely for the intended addressee(s). Unauthorised reproduction, disclosure, modification, and/or distribution of this email may be unlawful. If you have received this email in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete it from your system. The views expressed in this message do not necessarily reflect those of LIFFE (Holdings) Plc or any of its subsidiary companies. -----------------------------------------------------------------------
