I am patient. I listen to some of my workmates expressly prefere PHP to Perl. That's an understatement. "Deride Perl in favour of PHP" might be a better phrase for it. Now, I might prefere PHP to Perl on occasion if only for the fact that I am a novice to each. But I think that's beside the point.

The fact of the matter is, I prefere Perl on easthetic and social grounds. It feels "good". But that does not defend the language from its critics (AFAIK). (Though I think it should be a consideration when choosing your tools. Provided that what you choose isn't wildly inapropriate)

What bothers me is the insistant statement that "Language X sucks" etc, without supporting information, or very little. Further, when it occures in my environment, I am at a loss to really compare the two, and I feel that I shouldn't have to. So, Perl does not yet get a good defense from me, and thus gets less use. *sigh*

So, my reply is really a question:: What are the best social actions that can make these debates clear and without malice?

thanks,
    willy :)

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