Hi Andrew,

I know what you are saying, and I agree with you.  I'm surprised perl isn't
more widely used.  But my team and I use perl all the time.  There isn't
anything faster or easier for crunching large amounts of string data.  Excel
has some rediculous 64,000 record limit, or something like that, so when we
need to manipulate large amounts of data, we write a quick perl script.  We
initiate a lot of our interfaces using perl scripts.  It's quick, easy to
maintain, and never fails.

I was raised that different languages have different strengths, but
programming skill is language independent.  And you are right, all anyone
case about (at least it seems this way) are Java and C#, which are ok
languages, and have their strengths.  But, the also have their weaknesses.
Java and/or C# are not the right language for every job.

Have a great day,

Bill Estep
Nemours

On 7/23/07, Andrew Hicox <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

I learned perl.
Now I'm kinda pissed because it's just about dead unless you're
developing websites with Mason.

Looking back. I wish I'd taken the time to learn Java. Love it or
hate it, it's become the defacto standard programming language in
large corporations (one's that aren't all MS'd up with the C# and
the .Net). Just look at how much java is in ARS itself.

Don't get it twisted. Perl is a damn fine language, and it's never
really let me down, it's just that if you chose something like
that ... something that's hot right now, but doesn't have a whole lot
in terms of money behind it (rails comes to mind, as does python) ...
well the problem is that in a few years, you're going to have a VERY
hard time recruiting help that can REALLY come in and take over your
codebase.

Look at what they're teaching in the colleges today. That's what'll
be in the workforce tomorrow. My wake up call for java was when my
younger brother went to college at GA Tech (6 or 7 years ago now).
When I was in school, everyone had to take C / C++ ... they didn't
even teach it anymore. EVERYONE had to learn Java.

I should have went and bought a Java book right then and there, or at
least taken some night courses or something ... but I was too busy
meeting deadlines with my l33t perl + C toolkit, and developing the
heck out of ARS with it.

Now ... I've got an aging codebase, and I'm really really really
tired of having to maintain it all myself, and I can't find anyone to
hire who knows perl for anything other than websites.

Now I've got some Java guys I'm supposed to work with to change it
all over, but I still don't know any java, plus I've got to go back
through all that perl code and explain what it all does.

So yeah, choose wisely, once you're in it, there's no easy way back
out ;-)

-Andy

On Jul 23, 2007, at 11:23 AM, Luttmann, Michael W CTR USA wrote:

> Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
>
> I know this isn't the answer you're looking for, but I'd say learning
> ANY programming language is useful.  It's not the syntax that matters,
> but learning the process of designing a program from start to
> finish and
> making it work.  So choose a language that you might enjoy
> learning, as
> long as it makes you think like a software designer.  And just like
> learning a forgeign language, once you've learned one fairly well, the
> next ones are much easier.
>
> My first programming language was BASIC (showing my age a bit, there),
> then Turbo Pascal, followed by the dBase design languages, some Ada
> (at
> the Army automation school), SQL, and a smattering of VBScript/MS-
> Access
> programming, and C++ ... NONE of which I ever used or needed to make a
> paycheck.  Remedy is my bread and butter now, but the lessons I
> learned
> in programming the above languages for fun have served me well today.
>
> If I had to settle on one... In the long run, learning DB
> programming in
> dBase and SQL had the most Remedy "relevance", IMO.  It taught me the
> most about interacting with and manipulating stored data.
>
> HTH,
>
> Mike L.
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList)
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Mayfield, Andy L.
> Sent: Monday, July 23, 2007 10:13 AM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Remedy and Programming Languages
>
>       I would like some opinions from all my great friends here on the
> ARSlist.
>
>       If you had to choose one programming language to learn (for use
> with Remedy) which one would you choose?
>
>       Thanks in advance.
>
>       Andy L. Mayfield
>       Sr. System Operation Specialist
>       Alabama Power Company
>       Office: 8-226-1805
>       Cell: 288-9140
>       SoLinc: 19140
>
>  <<Mayfield, Andy L..vcf>>
>
> ______________________________________________________________________
> __
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> the Answers Are"
> Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
>
> ______________________________________________________________________
> _________
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--
Bill Estep
http://www.clubreading.com

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