Thinking about this more, I realize that marketing Perl to new developers will require there to be clear cases in which we can argue that Perl is the obvious choice. Usually, these type of arguments rely as much on community, libraries, and tools as core language.
For example, the typical argument for Python in the data analysis space is that there are good well documented libraries (e.g. numpy, scikit-learn, matplotlib, nltk), there's a large data focused community, and that Python makes it easy to write programs quickly that run fast enough. Basicly they claim to be easier to use than Java and R while having better data libraries and community than Perl or Ruby. Is there a domain in which we could make a similar argument for Perl? Currently, it seems that the reason people code in Perl is because they know Perl or because they have an existing Perl code base. Can anyone come up with a use case in which we could make a compelling argument for building a new system in Perl as opposed Python or Ruby? What if other languages such as C++, Java, or Scala are available? (The best I can do is to cite the safety benefits from the compile time checking that Perl provides which Python and Ruby do not. This allows bugs such as typos in variable names to be caught at compile time. I don't think this would be enough though. The responses I imagine getting would be 1.) you should be using unit tests anyway or 2.) use a strongly typed language if you want compile time guarantees.) Any thoughts? -- David On Tue, Jul 23, 2013 at 8:17 PM, David Larochelle <[email protected]>wrote: > Stevan Little's talk "Perl is not dead, it is a > deadend"<https://speakerdeck.com/stevan_little/perl-is-not-dead-it-is-a-dead-end>and > his recent follow on Perl > - The Detroit of Scripting > Languages<https://speakerdeck.com/stevan_little/perl-the-detroit-of-scripting-languages> > are > apropos. > > > > On Tue, Jul 23, 2013 at 9:06 AM, john saylor <[email protected]> wrote: > >> BEGIN {} >> >> On 7/22/13 19:14 , Bill Ricker wrote: >> >>> http://anonymoushash.**vmbrasseur.com/2013/07/22/the-** >>> rising-costs-of-aging-perlers-**part-1-the-data/<http://anonymoushash.vmbrasseur.com/2013/07/22/the-rising-costs-of-aging-perlers-part-1-the-data/> >>> >> >> this was good and interesting. not earthshaking but nicely done. >> >> in the sweep of history [as i know it], i view perl as a stepping stone >> on the way to the best human computer programming interface we can imagine. >> enough time has passed [and then passed again] for smart programmers to >> look at perl, take what is good and make something new that seems better. >> >> the wheel keeps turning. perl is still unique in many ways. i think >> [literary] artists and anarchists will always like it because TMTOWTDI. and >> to the practical minded; it just works [still]. >> >> programming language popularity is based on many things. the days of >> world domination are ancient history; but in so far as i can see the future >> [i can't], there will always be someone with a programming problem that >> will turn to perl for the answer. >> >> thank you larry. >> >> -- >> \js [http://or8.net/~johns/] : i am alive >> >> >> ______________________________**_________________ >> Boston-pm mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://mail.pm.org/mailman/**listinfo/boston-pm<http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/boston-pm> >> > > _______________________________________________ Boston-pm mailing list [email protected] http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/boston-pm
