Aaron Sherman: # On Mon, 2002-01-28 at 11:17, Brent Dax wrote: # # > I'd like you to perform an exercise for me if you have a Camel III. # # I have a Camel 1 (pink) and 2, but not 3. However, I follow # you. You are # (as everyone else has fallen into the trap of) thinking of only what # hurdles a Perl programmer has in tackling Perl6. # # I ask you to think in terms of a Perl programmer tackling # maintenance of # a program written by someone who has never seen "old Perl". # Look at C++. # I can write a C++ program easily if I'm a C programmer. # However, trying # to maintain a native C++ program as a C programmer would be impossible # without a good chunk of re-education. C9x, on the other hand would be # easy for an old-school K&R C programmer to understand (even if the # parameter passing is very different). # # Here's the scary part... C++'s syntax is more like C's than # Perl6's will # be like Perl5's. Really. Mostly C++ just adds new operators and leaves # the rest of the language alone. "." becoming "_", "->" becoming ".", # "=>" becoming a tuple constructor, "%" and "@" becoming... something # new. These are the hurdles that C programmers never had to # deal with in # going to C++, but Perl programmers will have to. *THEN* # there's the new # syntax. Imagine trying to understand code that actually uses Perl6. # # > I think you'll find that Perl 6 isn't as dissimilar to Perl # 5 as you may # > think. # # I think the first guy that gets hired to maintain Perl6 code, # and think # "hey, I know Perl, no sweat" will disagree with you.
I disagree. He'll see stuff he doesn't understand and try to consult perldoc on it, at which point he'll realize that he's working with Perl 6. Then he'll run out, get Camel IV, read it, and go back to work. Programmer is working with a better version of language, program is fixed, and ORA made fifty bucks. Everybody's happy. :^) --Brent Dax [EMAIL PROTECTED] Parrot Configure pumpking and regex hacker Check out the Parrot FAQ: http://www.panix.com/~ziggy/parrot.html (no, it's not mine) <obra> mmmm. hawt sysadmin chx0rs <lathos> This is sad. I know of *a* hawt sysamin chx0r. <obra> I know more than a few. <lathos> obra: There are two? Are you sure it's not the same one?
