Perl is 26 Today • Hacker News Board

Re: Perl is 26 Today

#11

Post by mxey » Thu, Dec 19, 2013, 11:53 AM UTC

collyw wrote: post #7

AlexanderDhoore wrote: post #3

I'm a relatively new programmer. Been programming for around 4 years. I tried Perl, but felt like the world had moved on, so I never really committed to it. With PHP, Python, Ruby and Javascript... space seems tight for another scripting language. Languages like Lua have something special. What's special about Perl? Edit: I don't want to be hateful. The more the merrier obviously.

I moved from Perl to Python 3 years ago. Its true. Perl feels like a very powerful base language, moving to Python felt like you were taking a bit away (I know in reality you can probably achieve much the same things). Python on the other hand doesn't require you to implement your own basic functions (max, min , trim / strip ) as they are included already. Python stops me from shooting myself in the foot as often, by…

max and min are part of List::Util, a library that comes with Perl

Re: Perl is 26 Today

#12

Post by swansw » Thu, Dec 19, 2013, 11:54 AM UTC

For those wondering about startups using Perl for a large part of their codebase, DuckDuckGo is certainly one. There maybe others too but mostly it's for server side scripting.

Re: Perl is 26 Today

#13

Post by mxey » Thu, Dec 19, 2013, 11:54 AM UTC

rikacomet wrote: post #8

I recently turned into a Perl user. Though I must say, documentation about Perl with CGI, and pre-made scripts are a let down. I browsed many O-Reilly books on Perl, CGI is one of the least explanative topics. Some modules have very obscure explanation on CPAN, I don't mean any offense. If not for Perl Monks, my enthusiasm might have been lost midway.

CGI is not the way to go today. If you want to build web pages with Perl, check out http://mojolicio.us

Re: Perl is 26 Today

#14

Post by mxey » Thu, Dec 19, 2013, 11:56 AM UTC

lmm wrote: post #9

Surio wrote: post #2

I am a Perl user and I do like it very much (warts and all). This article reminded me of another self-deprecatory Perl article: http://ebb.org/bkuhn/blog/2012/12/18/perl-cobol.html And yes, as the article says, Here's to 26 more! :-)

That's an interesting article but seems to be missing the actual why of it. He still likes perl because... culture? Some people are still writing software in perl or cobol, sure - and some of that is good software that solves real problems. But the reason we think of the average programmer in one of these obsolete languages as "some sort of second-class technology citizen" is that, well, they are. Compared to the res…

I spend less time “working around language deficiencies, inadequate tooling and all the rest of it” in Perl than in, for example, Python.

Re: Perl is 26 Today

#15

Post by toadi » Thu, Dec 19, 2013, 11:57 AM UTC

Been programming perl for over 8 years. Moved on like most of the perl developers to ruby :)

Re: Perl is 26 Today

#16

Post by arjn » Thu, Dec 19, 2013, 11:57 AM UTC

Good old perl. Complicated, funny, odd and very useful. I've been using it regularly for the last 6 years now.

Re: Perl is 26 Today

#17

Post by virtualsue » Thu, Dec 19, 2013, 11:57 AM UTC

lmm wrote: post #9

Surio wrote: post #2

I am a Perl user and I do like it very much (warts and all). This article reminded me of another self-deprecatory Perl article: http://ebb.org/bkuhn/blog/2012/12/18/perl-cobol.html And yes, as the article says, Here's to 26 more! :-)

That's an interesting article but seems to be missing the actual why of it. He still likes perl because... culture? Some people are still writing software in perl or cobol, sure - and some of that is good software that solves real problems. But the reason we think of the average programmer in one of these obsolete languages as "some sort of second-class technology citizen" is that, well, they are. Compared to the res…

I run into many Scala fans amongst Java developers. It's the current shiny thing in that technology area. Good old Java (of a similar age to Perl) is usually what they're making their living doing...

Re: Perl is 26 Today

#18

Post by onion2k » Thu, Dec 19, 2013, 11:59 AM UTC

I used to be a Perl developer a very long time ago. Writing CGI based web apps was fun, and felt much 'tighter' than today's world of PHP, Ruby, JS, etc. That said though, I don't miss it. :)

Perhaps my favourite memory of the Perl scene was the announcement of Parrot - an April Fools joke that detailed a project to built a bridge between Perl and Python - that then got built. Brilliant.

Re: Perl is 26 Today

#19

Post by freyfogle » Thu, Dec 19, 2013, 11:59 AM UTC

swansw wrote: post #12

For those wondering about startups using Perl for a large part of their codebase, DuckDuckGo is certainly one. There maybe others too but mostly it's for server side scripting.

Here's a new site that features start-ups using perl http://www.builtinperl.com

Re: Perl is 26 Today

#20

Post by lmm » Thu, Dec 19, 2013, 12:00 PM UTC

virtualsue wrote: post #17

lmm wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's an interesting article but seems to be missing the actual why of it. He still likes perl because... culture? Some people are still writing software in perl or cobol, sure - and some of that is good software that solves real problems. But the reason we think of the average programmer in one of these obsolete languages as "some sort of second-class technology citizen" is that, well, they are. Compared to the res…

I run into many Scala fans amongst Java developers. It's the current shiny thing in that technology area. Good old Java (of a similar age to Perl) is usually what they're making their living doing...

Sucks to be them; I'm fortunate enough to do Scala professionally. I think "shiny" is unnecessarily dismissive; the productivity and safety advantages are real enough.