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In university, I learned Perl out of curiousity. It was the first scripting language I tried; I was only familiar with Java, C and Scheme at the time. After re
by debo_ 5y ago
In university, I learned Perl out of curiousity. It was the first scripting language I tried; I was only familiar with Java, C and Scheme at the time.
After reading Programming Perl from cover-to-cover, I suddenly felt like I had superpowers. I probably would have felt the same if I'd taken the time to learn bash scripting, but that's not how it worked out.
I tried to automate everything in my life with Perl. I'd walk to class in the morning and a script had already scraped and downloaded my lecture materials and sent a print job for me. It emailed me if it couldn't find notes for one of my scheduled classes. Others would manage my assignment submissions. I wrote scrapers to detect what events on campus might offer free food.
This was the first time I felt like I could write programs that actually had the power to improve my life. It changed my perspective on what I had the power to do as a programmer. I'll always be grateful to Perl for that.
I also learned how to quickly develop a thick programmer skin by asking questions on comp.lang.perl, but that's another topic altogether.
- tetris11 5y agoThat is what bash/pipeline programming felt like for me the first time I mastered it. I missed the Perl boat by a few years, riding the Python2/Java wave at Uni instead, but I did encounter it a few times in legacy (read: 5-years old) code and could only marvel at its string manipulation capabilities. I like to think of it as the extended bash that I never took the time to learn
- wutbrodo 5y agoI'm not super familiar with Perl, but I gather that it shares much of bash's, er, ergonomic hurdles. Is there something about gaining scripting power that requires such poor usability? I resisted it for a while, but I just write all my workaday scripts in Python now, and I'm honestly a little baffled as to why I stuck with bash for so long.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- lenkite 5y agoPerl's usability is far higher than bash and more consistent. Admittedly, there is a bit of memorisation regarding special variables, but those variables are well-documented and have a strong UNIX heritage. (and they have named versions too..)
- cafard 5y agoI would say that Perl burst on the world about 30 years ago, and that what it allowed one to do was so compelling that it spread at tremendous speed. It was out there, it was in use, and any development had to avoid--as far as possible--breaking existing code. It is possible to write lucid, maintainable Perl, something I have occasionally managed. It is easy to write ugly, unmaintainable Perl, and that I have too often done. If one looks at the Perl found on CPAN or in various good books on Perl, you can see how to do the former.