On Fri, 04 Aug 2000, Jeremy Howard wrote:
> OK, so maybe I'm taking up an unwinnable cause, but I
> un{fourth,third,second,nominate} this. Maybe it's my mod_perl bias
> speaking--the CGI scripts people post to the mod_perl list and say 'will
> this work under mod_perl?' sometimes make me need a cup of tea and a good
> lie down...
>
I wouldn't say it's unwinnable. I'll have an RFC on your mod-perl
issue tonight.
> When I'm showing someone how to program for the first time, they more often
> get things right the first time with 'use strict', and when something goes
> wrong, they tend to find what's gone wrong faster. More importantly, when
> they haven't had the mentoring to learn to 'use strict', and eventually
> manage to cobble together a program that works, attempting to maintain that
> down the track is near impossible.
>
That's an issue with the mentoring, not the language. That's why you
should teach someone with 'use strict'.
> Hey, I'm just as Lazy as the next perl hacker. But how hard is it to write
> 'no strict' if you want to? As I said in another thread, the People Who Know
> What They're Doing know when it's OK to do this, whereas Mere Mortals can
> use some hand holding, particularly when they're starting off.
>
About as hard as writing 'use strict'. Minus a letter.
IME, I find it more dangerous to do behind-the-scenes hand holding than
to simply teach them the hows and whys of the "right way."
> Not sit down before I share with you this...--I've heard a nasty rumour that
> there are even some people that think perl is a write-once, read many
> language <gasp>. Well, we all know it doesn't have to be. So, let's
> encourage the use of the perl we respect, while still making the perl we
> keep in a dark place for when we're feeling naughty available for when we
> want it.
>
Of course, once you write something once in Perl, it doesn't need to be
rewritten. :-P
The key word above is "encourage". You're not really encouraging
anything - you're now having the language mandate particular constructs,
without the added benefit of teaching people why these constructs are
important.
> Or wouldn't perl without the bad reputation really be perl anymore?...
I find that the only bad rep Perl really gets is that it is too
powerful from a UI perspective. People are afraid of TMTOWTDI.
--
Bryan C. Warnock
([EMAIL PROTECTED])
