Re: Perl is read-only!

[matthewb]

It's a subject that's been done to death, I'm afraid.

Bottom line is that you can write crappy code in any language but the low barrier to entry that Perl provides, combined with its popularity, may be said to encourage amateurs.

Not a bad thing, everyone has to start somewhere. When you come across someone writing this stuff send them here. They'll either freak out and turn to PHP or learn the error of their ways.

[Pic]

Good points all. But I don't think anything in the current universe would make the one who spurred this train of thought convert to perl. He prefers shell mainly ("shell is beautiful" according to him) or PHP for web.

[samizdat]

Having written a twenty+ page shell script that's in use all over my workplace, I can relate to his muse.

Were the question to be phrased, "If you had to choose just one existing language to serve all your needs, what would it be," I think he'd choose Perl too. You should also point out that his shell programs use a lot of tools that are not themselves written in shell script.

Ask him how happy he'd be without grep and awk! :D

[mpeters]

Really? A shell programmer complaining about Perl's readability? That's just silly :)