Perl outreach

[Guinevere Nell]

>
> On Mon, Nov 26, 2012 at 8:12 PM, Salve J Nilsen <sjn+oslo.pm at pvv.org>
>> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>  «So you want to write some useful software? Learn from Perl. We in the
>>> Perl community saw what happened when one just focuses "getting stuff done"
>>> without spending any attention on software life-cycle management. So, what
>>> did we learn? Write software that is easy to understand and fun to read. In
>>> fact, try to write software that one only needs to read once, but that one
>>> *wants* to read twice. This is difficult, but less so with Perl. You need a
>>> language that is flexible and malleable enough so you can express the
>>> intention of your code in the way that is best for your readers. This is
>>> where Perl shines. If you wield the tool well you can make wonderful
>>> things, and if you don't you'll probably end up making crap.»
>>>
>>> Comments? :)
>>>
>>
>> I think you could swap in any language name there, and no-one would be
>> any wiser that you started off with "Perl".
>>
>
> Would mentioning TIMTOWTDI address your point? e.g. «... This is where
> Perl shines. We call this flexibility TIMTOWTDI, and it's a core philosophy
> in our language. ...»
>

I don't think you can say it about any language - I mean, you *can*, but
you'd be lying. My guess is that only 1 in 37 programmers that have both
allocated memory in C and not had to allocate memory in Perl would choose
to continue to allocate memory in C if they had a choice (keeping their job
at the same pay, etc). My guess is that only 1 in 12 programmers who had
both used primitive C++ techniques and also Perl techniques for various
tasks would choose to use C++. Now, those who love objects (and there are
quite a few) might argue that Java is fun, Python is fun, and Perl is
incredibly frustrating, when it comes to designing nice OO projects. Fine,
true, good. Perl is fun and enjoyable for many things, but perhaps not for
clean, neat OO.

Which brings me to my other point: there are reasons to buy a 4x4 pickup
truck and reasons to buy a 50 mph city car. We should be able to sell the
car that Perl is in other ways than "oooh, shiny!"

-dollarbar