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in reply to Migrating from Perl to other language? Why would someone do that?

Fair question. I'm not sure I can give a very good answer because I don't know enough Python having only really worked with it for one small project. However there is a significant point of difference, and it's really a culture thing: the Perl camp (which I'm firmly in) has a culture of TIMTOWTDI where the Python camp follows the mantra of "The One True Way".

I like the magic that Perl provides and I think that it is quite possible to write good, clean, succinct and elegant code in Perl. It is also possible to write absolute impenetrable crap, but that is true in any language. Much the same can be said for most other main stream scripting languages (except VBScript which is only suitable for writing crap).

I can understand that management may prefer Python which makes it harder to write absolute crap even though it's not as easy (in my opinion) to write in Python the truly succinct and elegant code that Perl can achieve.

True laziness is hard work

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Re^2: Migrating from Perl to other language? Why would someone do that?
by hippo (Bishop) on Nov 21, 2013 at 23:35 UTC
    It is also possible to write absolute impenetrable crap, but that is true in any language.

    This is every bit as true today as it was back in '82 when Ed Post wrote the seminal Real Programmers Don't Use Pascal. This treatise includes the oft-since-quoted maxim, "the determined Real Programmer can write Fortran programs in any language."

    To the OP I say: Look around the code posted on this very site. You'll see Perl written by folks which looks suspiciously like C, awk, Fortran, BASIC, a whole slew of OO languages, Lua, Erlang, and some that's close to line noise. Try looking under ACME:: someday to see just what monstrous things can be done by the determined Perl Programmer.

    However, we also see examples of supremely elegant code which I have to say is very rarely echoed in other languages with which I am familiar. In the right hands Perl can be succinct, clear and powerful.