Re: Perl as interactive Shell?

[GotToBTru]

I suppose I'm showing my ignorance, but how would you execute Perl without the shell?

[tobyink]

xterm -e perl -MReply -e'Reply->new->run'

[LanX]

I said interactive shell.

"Shell" is an ambiguous term

Bash can be

• the shell process parenting Perl
• the interactive CLI
• the language of shell scripts.sh
we mainly use Perl for the last part and full scale applications.

Taking into consideration that a big part of Perl's gene pool comes from sed, awk AND Bourne shell ( plus lisp), it's paradoxical not to use Perl as CLI.

[GotToBTru]

Paradoxical not to use as a CLI? I don't see how. Certainly that's not what Perl was developed to be. 3 out of 4 parents in your list aren't CLI's either.

I suppose the motivation is to put its features more at your fingertips, moreso than perl -e already does. I often use the debugger for that purpose. Do you have a simple example of something you'd like to be able to do that you can't at present?

[LanX]

> Paradoxical not to use as a CLI? I don't see how. Certainly that's not what Perl was developed to be

you seem to forget that Perl5 was developed to be compatible to Perl4, which was primarly meant to be used in the sh ecosystem.

To phrase it differently "Perl started as a bash on steroids." (Friedo at LPW)

And that's the fundamental problem in Perl's public awareness , outsiders see "cryptic" and "golfed" code stemming from the approach to have maximum success with minimal typing, giving Perl this "Write once" reputation.

But for bigger projects you need speaking functions, because "Code is more often read then written" (Guido v R)

But Perl can do both, for instance:

        my $line = <STDIN>;            # concise shell style
        my $line = readline(STDIN);    # readable for beginners

So Perl is in the position of an universalist which is losing ground against specialists.

Like a penguin which started as a bird, it can walk on ground, but fails in a speed and beauty contest with dolphins, which can neither walk nor fly.

At the same time there is a huge niche for CLI scripting and bash is really not a good solution for bigger apps, especially when people start pasting the shell code into an editor.

My idea is to help the penguin to fly again, to better compete in the Bash and PowerShell market, and to have a "lead in" effect from hackers coming from CLI to app programming.

[Anonymous Monk]

Actually, you called the troll's bluff. xD