in reply to PERL as shibboleth and the Perl community
Using PERL as screening criteria is reasonable to me.
Litmus tests are cheap and require little skill or effort. They
do measure only one attribute; they do have their place.
But not for an initially given reason.
Cultures do not deserve respect, people do. A culture seems to
inhere in, or adhere to, its people but is foolish to confuse the
two.
On ethics.
Generosity is greater than fairness. I test the fit of the concept
of generosity in all the places that I previously used fairness.
This has been fruitful. Fairness or justice can easily become an
exercise in miserly bean counting--did I get mine? Generosity
promotes a finer intention and diminishes the importance of what is
beyond your control.
Humor.
Much of the elite of perlmonks is supporting the significance of
Perl versus PERL. I don't know to what degree this is driven by
self-interest. I doubt many have considered the issue--it is
such a small matter. I use Perl and perl as prescribed
by that
elite; if it was my code I'd be a cargo cult programmer but since it's
my English I'm a clueful character. There is something
amusingly weird in that.
Be well,
rir