...Well, that's flat-out ridiculous.
Perl is HARD compared to Applescript.
That is a matter of opinion.
Actually, it's NOT a matter of opinion. Many people have differing opinions, but that's not the same thing.
It's a matter of marketing, flat out.
However, AppleScript is a "scripting" language, and Perl is a "programming language" - at least by marketing....
I regard Perl as a scripting language, and generally refer to perl programs as 'scripts.' Many people regard scripting languages as those where a 'script' is text file of a block of code that is interpreted rather than compiled, so your semantic distinction can be tenuous here.
I would posit that in general those who do not have any background in programming tend to have an easier time learning AppleScript. Perl (whether a scripting language or a programming language) uses a lot of constructs that are going to be familiar to a programmer who has already used C/C++/Java/ObjC/etc. So in general a programmer will have an easy time with those pieces, even if other bits seem weird. I know a few Lisp/SmallTalk people who also found Perl easy and are bewildered by AppleScript's bizarre syntax. I began learning Perl and AppleScript at the same time, and am quite proficient in Perl, and still sometimes bewildered when using AppleScript which I regard as a dificult language, I still tend to pull out reference books to figure out how to do something, and sometimes just wind up calling 'do shell script' and using Perl/sh/etc to save time. I know there are many folks who love AppleScript and can do things with it that are truly remarkable, and still cannot figure out how to work in Perl. Of all the folks I know in that boat that I know (a huge sample size of three), I have asked what language they first learned, and they all reported that they learned AppleScript before any other language.
But I fully agree with Chris that it is purely a matter of opinion whether Perl is hard compared to AS, and I would add that programming backgrounds, learning styles and other factors are likely to come into play.
Regards, Steven
