Re^5: Can Perl do anything Java can do?

[jdporter]

I agree with what you're saying generally, but in this particular instance I think your complaint doesn't stick. While his comment was not written with the kind of linguistic precision and technical rigor we might use (or might expect from an experienced consultant), I think his points were actually quite cogent.

[shmem]

I think his points were actually quite cogent.

Quite cogent, yes, but poisoned. This is the problem all the time. Quoting Re: Can Perl do anything Java can do?:

The Java language is much heavier, but at the same time it has many features that Perl (5, at least) does not even consider: strong typing, compile-time checking, a more robust class implementation, and so on and on and on.

This is, putting mildly, not quite accurate: "does not even consider"? Considerable amount of brain cell squeezing was put into making loose typing work, that's true; but another big amount of brain cell rubbing was poured into making strong typing possible. The default is loose typing, sure. But that doesn't mean that perl does not even consider strong typing. One might wave that off as not being up to technical rigor - I call such statements toxic. They are purporting prejudices invalidated long ago.

So, while actually quite cogent this post is another example of the mixture: common-place chaff, one or two grains of wheat, and at least one ergot (sclerotium clavus or secale cornutum of Claviceps purpurea) which poisons the whole dough. Meditations about the fungus aspect are left as an excercise to the reader.

update: revision and links for the fungus part