Dwindling CPAN Releases • Hacker News Board

Re: Dwindling CPAN Releases

#11

Post by antisemiotic » Thu, Aug 01, 2019, 8:58 AM UTC

benj111 wrote: post #10

barrkel wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The rate of increase must have been declining (i.e. rate of rate of increase negative) in order for it to have peaked. This was probably detectable.

"and rate of rate of increase negative" Are you a politician? Because that's a very round about way of putting it. :P If the rate of increase is negative, there is an actual absolute decline. Is that want you were meaning to say?

"rate of rate of increase" = "second derivative", I presume. Negative second derivative doesn't necessarily mean a decline, it can be just growth slowing down.

Re: Dwindling CPAN Releases

#12

Post by barrkel » Thu, Aug 01, 2019, 9:07 AM UTC

benj111 wrote: post #10

barrkel wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The rate of increase must have been declining (i.e. rate of rate of increase negative) in order for it to have peaked. This was probably detectable.

"and rate of rate of increase negative" Are you a politician? Because that's a very round about way of putting it. :P If the rate of increase is negative, there is an actual absolute decline. Is that want you were meaning to say?

I said rate of rate of increase. The second derivative is negative at a local maximum.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derivative_test#Second_derivat...

Re: Dwindling CPAN Releases

#13

Post by wastholm » Thu, Aug 01, 2019, 9:07 AM UTC

l33tman wrote: post #8

Long ago I used to joke that perl is write-only... was that harsh or realistic? (I still believe it - too clever constructions which feel smart at the time you come up with them :)

Perl aims to be an enabler, and is therefore not particularly opinionated ("there is more than one way to do it"). This includes making little to no effort to make it hard to write difficult-to-read code.

Personally, I don't tend to have a hard time reading code I myself wrote, even long after the fact. But I will concede that Perl code _can be_ hard to read if the author has been too clever.

Re: Dwindling CPAN Releases

#14

Post by mirceal » Thu, Aug 01, 2019, 9:07 AM UTC

_rrnv wrote: post #9

Consider this: Perl codebase is reaching perfection and no longer needs releases. After this, we get eternal Perl ;)

aka Perl 6

Re: Dwindling CPAN Releases

#15

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Aug 01, 2019, 9:08 AM UTC

antisemiotic wrote: post #11

benj111 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"and rate of rate of increase negative" Are you a politician? Because that's a very round about way of putting it. :P If the rate of increase is negative, there is an actual absolute decline. Is that want you were meaning to say?

"rate of rate of increase" = "second derivative", I presume. Negative second derivative doesn't necessarily mean a decline, it can be just growth slowing down.

[deleted]

Re: Dwindling CPAN Releases

#16

Post by gerad » Thu, Aug 01, 2019, 9:11 AM UTC

mirceal wrote: post #14

_rrnv wrote: post #9

Consider this: Perl codebase is reaching perfection and no longer needs releases. After this, we get eternal Perl ;)

aka Perl 6

Perl Nukem Forever?

Re: Dwindling CPAN Releases

#17

Post by fmajid » Thu, Aug 01, 2019, 9:13 AM UTC

iamnotacrook wrote: post #7

I used Perl for a bit but switched to Python because I was finding it harder to work out what some code I'd written a year or so ago did than to write it again, a problem I don't have with Python.

I switched in 1995, never looked back. Perl can’t die soon enough.

Re: Dwindling CPAN Releases

#18

Post by benj111 » Thu, Aug 01, 2019, 9:14 AM UTC

barrkel wrote: post #12

benj111 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"and rate of rate of increase negative" Are you a politician? Because that's a very round about way of putting it. :P If the rate of increase is negative, there is an actual absolute decline. Is that want you were meaning to say?

I said rate of rate of increase. The second derivative is negative at a local maximum. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derivative_test#Second_derivat...

My mistake, I misread.

Re: Dwindling CPAN Releases

#19

Post by tus88 » Thu, Aug 01, 2019, 9:18 AM UTC

It's interesting. I started Perl in around 2005, and moved entirely to Python in 2014, exactly when it reached it's peak and started to decline. Seems I wasn't the only one.

Re: Dwindling CPAN Releases

#20

Post by isostatic » Thu, Aug 01, 2019, 9:18 AM UTC

iamnotacrook wrote: post #7

I used Perl for a bit but switched to Python because I was finding it harder to work out what some code I'd written a year or so ago did than to write it again, a problem I don't have with Python.

I used python for a bit but switched to Perl because it

1) Works

2) Is ubiquitous

3) Is stable

4) Is normal (semicolons, braces etc)