Re: OFF-TOPIC: Perl...

["Chris Bartak" <chrisbartak gmail com>]

Juan,

It may be a bit off-topic for this group, but It's an interesting topic anyway.

If you want to use one language for desktop apps, service/daemon apps, web apps, and mobile apps, I guess the answer is Java. That said, I don't believe there is a need to use any one language for everything. I love Perl, and use it at every opportunity. I use it for developing web apps, desktop GUIs (thanks to the XS/Gtk work done by our friends here), doing UNIX system scripting (I don't have as good a grasp on BASH as I do Perl when it comes to complicated scripts), data conversions, text file parsing, and so on. It is a beautiful language, and performs well, while giving you the advantages of a scripted language, and having a clean, elegant syntax.

Nonetheless, I use other languages, where applicable. Sometimes I do a bit of Ruby, or PHP, or C, or if I have to, Java. I'd say use Perl when that's a good option, which is most of the time (at least for me). If I wanted to develop an app for a mobile device, I'd use Java, since the wide majority of those devices use Java. If I wanted to develop a Gtk app, I'd use Perl or C. If it was a web app I was after, likely Perl or PHP (or Java, if my arm was twisted), or Ruby if it was part of a Rails project.

I don't think there's a need to choose "the one true language". Java aimed to be the ultimately ubiquitous language, and while it accomplished that goal to some degree (in that it will run on all sorts of devices), it's never been the best solution for everything.

If you're interested in Perl, and like it (as you seem to), I'd say you should stick with it. If you need to learn Python or Java to develop for this device or that, you'll just have an opportunity to add one more tool to your belt.

That's maybe not a very technical response, but it's my opinion anyway. And I agree with Sergei that Ruby is a better choice for the ultimate OOP experience than Python.

Cheers,
Chris

On Jan 27, 2008 3:46 PM, Sergei Steshenko <sergstesh yahoo com> wrote:

--- Juan José 'Peco' San Martín <peco microbotica es> wrote:

> I know this is not the right place to write this but...
>
> I'm afraid of Perl. I love it, I think it's a wonderful language and
> what to say about CPAN... is uncomparable!.
>
> But today, if you want to develop for the the Nokia Smartphones
> (Symbian), or for the Nintendo DS, or for large systems or for
> GNOME/GTK, etc... the commom language seems to be Python.
>
> Perl6 is comming but may be it's too late.
>
> Really sorry for this FUD if somebody thinks that it's what is. :-/
>
> Thoughts are welcome.
>
> Peco
>
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Python, AFAIK, does not compare to Perl, and not in favor of Python.

AFAIK, there are no closures in Python, and scoping is poor.

A nice article by Larry Wall: "Programming is Hard, Let's Go Scripting..." ->

http://www.perl.com/lpt/a/997
.

If you're a fan of OOP, it has a pointer to "Moose" module:

http://search.cpan.org/~stevan/Moose-0.36/lib/Moose.pm

- I am not that crazy about OOP, but this module can be a good argument
dealing with people who are.

Also, AFAIK, Python does not have anonymous import, which Perl has, and
this is my most favorite Perl feature.

I think the module supercedes OOP capabilities of Python, and maybe even
Ruby.

By the way, Ruby is a much cleaner than Python language, so I really do not
understand the hype around Python.

Perl is a really powerful and efficient language, and good programmers can
write really clean code in it.

Regards,
 Sergei.

Applications From Scratch: http://appsfromscratch.berlios.de/

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