Random Perl ... rant

[Ovid]

--- Jonathan Rockway <jon at jrock.us> wrote:

> * On Thu, Apr 03 2008, Dean Wilson wrote:
> > On Thu, Apr 03, 2008 at 08:14:57AM -0500, Jonathan Rockway wrote:
> >> I'll add to this that I don't think it's a coincidence that most
> of the
> >> best programmers choose tools other than Windows and Visual
> Studio.
> >
> > I've heard that before (from DDH about macs) and it's always irked
> > me - so prove your statement.
> 
> This isn't a proof so much as an interesting exercise.  Go find your
> favorite CPAN modules, then ask the author what editor they use.

You're appear to be assuming what you're trying to prove:  namely, that
Perl programmers are better than those who use Windows and Visual
Studio.  Of *course* a language that borrows the best features of *nix
and was born and bred on *nix systems will tend to favor *nix tools.

My former housemate was one of the best programmers I know and he's a
solid C# guy.  More than once I found myself incredibly envious of the
tools he had available.  Windows has great tools and great developers. 
The tools, admittedly, are a recent development, but that's because
Microsoft saw what was going on and realized they had to seriously
compete in this arena lest they lose developer mind share.

I'm routinely hearing about financial institutions switching to C# and
.net and building large systems on top of them.  It's not *all*
perception.  Economics is real, man :)

Cheers,
Ovid

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