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I think there's some good points in this article - and I relate to it, 'cause this is exactly how I learned Perl. The one other item that I'll add is that some

I think there's some good points in this article - and I relate to it, 'cause this is exactly how I learned Perl. The one other item that I'll add is that some of the characteristics that make Perl awesome for sysadmins, like extremely flexible syntax and the ability to freely access data sturctures in a variety of contexts, can make it more difficult to build proper software development projects. Maybe it's just my limited experience, but it seems like Perl organizations spend a lot more time on mandating coding styles and debating best practices compared with more structured languages like Ruby or Python.

gsteinb88 12y ago
But as was mentioned in another comment, what you mention as a key appeal for sysadmins is exactly why I can't stand perl. In particular "extremely flexible syntax" makes taking over the sysadmin job from another person, or joining a team, a ridiculous amount of effort. I can't begin to tally the number of hours I've spent with perl code open in one window, and a web browser open to various different perl guides, the documentation, etc. trying to figure out what tricks some script is using that makes it completely incomprehensible to me. Is it fun? Sometimes, except never when a key service is down and you have users breathing down your neck. Or your website is down. Or really, trying to do any kind of maintenance work. And guess what happens? More crazy patches, probably written in an entirely different style! So now there are $n+1$ different styles in that script, and my successor is going to be even more frustrated with me than I am with my predecessors. On the flip side, it's been a great education on the difference between maintaining code for your own use and code in an organization...