On Wed, 25 Jan 2006 21:08:44 -0700, "Michael Torrie" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> said: > Other that code written very clearly, perl is one of the easiest > languages to write unreadable code in that a future maintainer will have > no hope of understanding. It's not the one always implies the other; > just that it's more probable. One of my CS professors said it best. > Perl is a great language for doing lots of things quickly, and it's very > powerful. However in the hands of most people perl is a "write-only" > language.
Often, perl fanboys will respond to this with something like, "but you can write unmaintainable code in any language!" That's true. However, as Erik Naggum said, "It's not that perl programmers are idiots, it's that the language rewards idiotic behavior in a way that no other language or tool has ever done." (From a semi-famous post on perl: http://www.underlevel.net/jordan/erik-perl.txt. Warning: bring a thick skin if hearing "perl is broken" brings emotions similar to "your daughter is ugly.") That's why these days you mostly see sysadmins and other not-really- experienced developers using Perl. Or, professionals using it as an awk/sed replacement, which is what it was designed for and which it's quite good at. -Jonathan -- C++ is history repeated as tragedy. Java is history repeated as farce. --Scott McKay /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
