Re: Get me excited about perl

Show them Perl's greatest asset -- concise solutions to everyday problems.

If you have time, pick some task that will resonate with as many of them as possible and get one or more of them to solve the chosen task in their favoured langugages before the day.

By way of example (because the examples already exist): frequency count the words in a text file.

C (211 lines):
<Reveal this spoiler or all spoilers in this node or all in this thread>
C++ (79 lines):
<Reveal this spoiler>
Java (68 lines):
<Reveal this spoiler>

Python (24 lines):

#!/usr/local/bin/python
# $Id: wordfreq.python,v 1.9 2001/05/11 17:44:00 doug Exp $
# http://www.bagley.org/~doug/shootout/
#
# adapted from Bill Lear's original python word frequency counter
#
# Joel Rosdahl suggested using translate table to speed up
# word splitting.  That change alone sped this program up by
# at least a factor of 3.
#
# with further speedups from Mark Baker

import sys

def main():
    count = {}
    i_r = map(chr, range(256))

    trans = [' '] * 256
    o_a, o_z = ord('a'), (ord('z')+1)
    trans[ord('A'):(ord('Z')+1)] = i_r[o_a:o_z]
    trans[o_a:o_z] = i_r[o_a:o_z]
    trans = ''.join(trans)

    rl = sys.stdin.readlines

    lines = rl(4095)
    while lines:
        for line in lines:
            for word in line.translate(trans).split():
                try:
                    count[word] += 1
                except KeyError:
                    count[word] = 1
        lines = rl(4095)

    l = zip(count.values(), count.keys())
    l.sort()
    l.reverse()

    print '\n'.join(["%7s\t%s" % (count, word) for (count, word) in l]
+)

main()
[download]

Haskell (20 lines):
<Reveal this spoiler>

And then write & run your perl solution in real time:

perl -nle"y/a-zA-Z/ /cs; ++$h{$_} for split }{ print qq[$_:$h{$_}] for
+ sort keys %h" theFile
break:1
brief:1
bring:3
brought:2
buffalo:16
burden:1
but:20
by:16
call:2
called:6
came:2
campaign:1
can:36
cannot:2
capable:1
capitals:1
career:2
cart:1
case:2
...
[download]

With the rise and rise of 'Social' network sites: 'Computers are making people easier to use everyday'

Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.

"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".

In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.

RIP Neil Armstrong

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Re^2: Get me excited about perl by tobyink (Canon) on Sep 19, 2012 at 20:21 UTC
`php -R 'foreach (str_word_count(strtolower($argn), 1) as $w) $h[$w]++;' -E 'ksort($h); foreach ($h as $w=>$c) print "$w:$c\n";' <theFile` Update: it's sorted now. `perl -E'sub Monkey::do{say$_,for@_,do{($monkey=[caller(0)]->[3])=~s{::}{ }and$monkey}}"Monkey say"->Monkey::do'`	[reply]
Re^3: Get me excited about perl by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Sep 19, 2012 at 20:54 UTC
Is the output sorted? With the rise and rise of 'Social' network sites: 'Computers are making people easier to use everyday' Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error. "Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority". In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice. RIP Neil Armstrong	[reply]
Re^3: Get me excited about perl by flexvault (Monsignor) on Sep 25, 2012 at 13:27 UTC
tobyink, Okay, what's the joke? You brought 'php' to a thread on 'Get me excited about perl'! I can always use a good laugh...Ed "Well done is better than well said." - Benjamin Franklin	[reply]
Re^4: Get me excited about perl by tobyink (Canon) on Sep 25, 2012 at 15:04 UTC
You brought 'php' to a thread on 'Get me excited about perl'! Only as a reply to a post which included C, C++, Java, Python and Haskell source code. My point is that Perl is not unique in its ability to provide concise solutions to text processing problems. The PHP solution is a little longer, sure, but is arguably more readable than the Perl one (to somebody who knows both languages) due to not needing to rely on idioms like the Eskimo kiss operator. `perl -E'sub Monkey::do{say$_,for@_,do{($monkey=[caller(0)]->[3])=~s{::}{ }and$monkey}}"Monkey say"->Monkey::do'`	[reply]
Re^5: Get me excited about perl by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Oct 29, 2012 at 20:38 UTC
Re^5: Get me excited about perl by flexvault (Monsignor) on Sep 25, 2012 at 16:31 UTC