5 ms·

"Programming Perl" is absolutely chock full of great quotes. I think one of the things that attracted many programmers to Perl was how genuinely witty Larry Wa

"Programming Perl" is absolutely chock full of great quotes. I think one of the things that attracted many programmers to Perl was how genuinely witty Larry Wall was in his writings/talks. Add to that his background in linguistics and he comes across as a pretty hip/zany/brilliant character. I think lots of Perl programmers probably thought of themselves as "being in on" his creation and therefore being a bit like him, themselves. That was certainly one of the upshots for me back in the late 90s early 2000s.

RangerScience 6y ago
IMHO famous software people have amazing quotes, right from the start, with: "On two occasions I have been asked, 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." - Babbage "If I had a little less brains, I should & would be a good Catholic, & cling to that certainty which I do long for. However I don't wish to be without my brains, tho' they doubtless interfere with a blind faith which would be very comfortable." - Ada Lovelace "I do not think that this argument is sufficiently substantial to require refutation. Consolation would be more appropriate..." - Turing
- ColanR 6y ago
  Last time I heard mention of the first quote, it was used as an example of how a non expert could figure out if someone was full of it.
- toohotatopic 6y ago
  >"On two occasions I have been asked, 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." - Babbage To me, this belongs into the same category as Henry Ford's "If I’d asked people what they wanted, they would have asked for a better horse": Google search does exactly that, trying to offer the right answer, no matter the question. One day, they will link the user tracking and the search engine, and when you hesitate for a moment, google will tell you the missing information that you are lacking. Thus, the right answer no matter the input. But of course, what they tell you to buy when you are making a purchasing decision will be up to the highest bidder. As to Henry Ford, self driving cars are faster horses. Seems like people don't buy cars because they want to steer by themselves all the time, they just want to indicate the general direction.
cutler 6y ago
Definitely. I'd say "Programming Perl" is a literary masterpiece. Larry Wall's genius was selling Perl as a literate, witty, expressive antidote to all the Java and C++ cruft of the late 90s (Perl 5). "Programming Perl" should be read alongside "Mastering Regular Expressions" which is another masterpiece. I think Ruby and Clojure are the only language cultures that come close to engaging the whole brain the way Perl 5 did when it was popular. However, while each has a couple of shining stars (Ruby: Matz & DHH, Clojure: Rich Hickey) they don't compare with the sheer number of stars who made up the Perl 5 cast of the early 2000s (Larry Wall, "The Damian" Conway, Chromatic, Curtis Poe, Lincoln Stein, Randall Schwartz, John Orwant, Simon Cozens, Tom Christiansen, Nat Torkington & many more). That really was an entertaining community to be part of and is, like disappearing bookshops, sorely missed. Perl lost a lot of mindshare to Python, famed for its boring predictability and crippled lambdas which the Perl 5 community would never have tolerated. If you want programming to inspire you the way O'Reilly's catalogue of Perl books did in the late 90s/early 2000s I'm not sure there's much apart from Matz and Rich Hickey's work. Their lectures are inspiring but their written output is limited. Go read "Programming Perl" - it's timeless.
- ahartmetz 6y ago
  Well, I hated "Programming Perl" and stopped reading after 50 pages or so. My favorite language introduction book is the K&R C book, it is of glittering elegance compared to the Perl book (and language)'s "quirky" style. Quirky is the very last thing that you want in a programming language. And I am not even that fond of C, at least with today's alternatives being available.
  - cutler 6y ago
    What you want out of a programming language may not be the same as what, for example, DHH or Matz wants. You seem to want minimalism and proximity to the metal whereas someone who appreciates Perl and Ruby is more likely to value expressiveness. Dynamic and statically-typed languages are not in competition with each other. They both have their place.
    - 6y ago

RangerScience 6y ago

IMHO famous software people have amazing quotes, right from the start, with: "On two occasions I have been asked, 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." - Babbage "If I had a little less brains, I should & would be a good Catholic, & cling to that certainty which I do long for. However I don't wish to be without my brains, tho' they doubtless interfere with a blind faith which would be very comfortable." - Ada Lovelace "I do not think that this argument is sufficiently substantial to require refutation. Consolation would be more appropriate..." - Turing

ColanR 6y ago
Last time I heard mention of the first quote, it was used as an example of how a non expert could figure out if someone was full of it.
toohotatopic 6y ago
>"On two occasions I have been asked, 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." - Babbage To me, this belongs into the same category as Henry Ford's "If I’d asked people what they wanted, they would have asked for a better horse": Google search does exactly that, trying to offer the right answer, no matter the question. One day, they will link the user tracking and the search engine, and when you hesitate for a moment, google will tell you the missing information that you are lacking. Thus, the right answer no matter the input. But of course, what they tell you to buy when you are making a purchasing decision will be up to the highest bidder. As to Henry Ford, self driving cars are faster horses. Seems like people don't buy cars because they want to steer by themselves all the time, they just want to indicate the general direction.

cutler 6y ago

Definitely. I'd say "Programming Perl" is a literary masterpiece. Larry Wall's genius was selling Perl as a literate, witty, expressive antidote to all the Java and C++ cruft of the late 90s (Perl 5). "Programming Perl" should be read alongside "Mastering Regular Expressions" which is another masterpiece. I think Ruby and Clojure are the only language cultures that come close to engaging the whole brain the way Perl 5 did when it was popular. However, while each has a couple of shining stars (Ruby: Matz & DHH, Clojure: Rich Hickey) they don't compare with the sheer number of stars who made up the Perl 5 cast of the early 2000s (Larry Wall, "The Damian" Conway, Chromatic, Curtis Poe, Lincoln Stein, Randall Schwartz, John Orwant, Simon Cozens, Tom Christiansen, Nat Torkington & many more). That really was an entertaining community to be part of and is, like disappearing bookshops, sorely missed. Perl lost a lot of mindshare to Python, famed for its boring predictability and crippled lambdas which the Perl 5 community would never have tolerated. If you want programming to inspire you the way O'Reilly's catalogue of Perl books did in the late 90s/early 2000s I'm not sure there's much apart from Matz and Rich Hickey's work. Their lectures are inspiring but their written output is limited. Go read "Programming Perl" - it's timeless.

ahartmetz 6y ago
Well, I hated "Programming Perl" and stopped reading after 50 pages or so. My favorite language introduction book is the K&R C book, it is of glittering elegance compared to the Perl book (and language)'s "quirky" style. Quirky is the very last thing that you want in a programming language. And I am not even that fond of C, at least with today's alternatives being available.
- cutler 6y ago
  What you want out of a programming language may not be the same as what, for example, DHH or Matz wants. You seem to want minimalism and proximity to the metal whereas someone who appreciates Perl and Ruby is more likely to value expressiveness. Dynamic and statically-typed languages are not in competition with each other. They both have their place.
  - 6y ago