3 ms·
It still slows you down if you don't use it all the time. Unless you're someone who has been programming in perl every day for years at a time, then that line
by Goladus 17y ago
It still slows you down if you don't use it all the time. Unless you're someone who has been programming in perl every day for years at a time, then that line is most assuredly not something that takes 2 seconds to learn and you'll remember forever. Seeing something like that while you are reading code means you have to STOP what you were reading, patiently sort it out the syntax and refer to the documentation to be sure you haven't made any mistaken assumptions, and THEN move on. Even if that only takes a couple of minutes, it adds to the frustration level of reading code. And the point is that it is perl-specific. It doesn't happen with most other code that I have to read.
- kingkongrevenge 17y ago> if you don't use it all the time It's core to the language; very common usage. Context overloading is very core to the language. I don't know what kind of programming you could do that wouldn't involved references used in this way. If you want to talk about the rough edges, I can do that. I actually know and use Perl. But when people who clearly have not invested much time with the language try to criticize it's always idiotic. I mean, let's talk about the 'each' operator or the archaic format stuff. The basic syntax of the language is fine; you just don't know it.
- berntb 17y agoAs I wrote in another place, the main problem with Perl is the trolls, like Godalus seems to be. All that garbage has really lessened any interest in Python and Ruby for me. I really don't want to join communities which have so many members doing so large amounts of hype, language wars and trolling.
- jrockway 17y agoAll that garbage has really lessened any interest in Python and Ruby for me. I really don't want to join communities which have so many members doing so large amounts of hype, language wars and trolling. So true. Perl people are not immune to this, though; I have seen a lot of snipes at Haskell and Common Lisp in various Perl forums. People see a threat to their way of life, and do everything possible to maintain the status quo. (The "complaints" are always about the same sorts of things, too. Perl sucks because it has sigils, Haskell sucks because I don't know what a functor is, and Common Lisp sucks because you can't get into the first element of a list and drive it. These are rarely problems with the languages, and more typically problems with the commenter.) It is funny, because Perl has been around longer than Python and Ruby, and Common Lisp (in some form) has been around longer than Perl. If the designers of Python and Ruby had done their job, there wouldn't even need to be a debate, we would all be using whichever one was newest.
- Goladus 17y agoBerntb. Please email me, goladus@goladus.com, if you would like to discuss my credibility. Otherwise please stop with the baseless character attacks.
- jrockway 17y agoI rarely write "push @$ref" expressions, but they don't slow me when I see them. It is blindingly obvious to me what is happening here. I have never read a manual entry that specifically documents this situation, either... it just makes sense from what I know about push and what I know about references. (Yes, you need to learn Perl to know Perl. Please let me know what programming language you don't need to learn to use.)
- Goladus 17y agoPlease let me know what programming language you don't need to learn to use. I have frequently been able to debug or explain unexpected behavior in programs written in languages I had never used before. Javascript, C#, Python, windows shell scripts, PHP, ASP, Emacs Lisp, and Visual Basic 6.0. Common Lisp, C, and bash are the only languages I had to really "learn" before I could read code. Perl is the only language I feel like I have to re-learn every single time I have to read it.