On Thu, Aug 03, 2000 at 10:33:21PM -0700, Peter Scott wrote:
> A constant topic
> of discussion is how to make Perl more accessible and friendly to the the
> newcomer,
And we will get a chance to discuss that very thing right here,
(I already think we 're going to need a sub-list for that one)
once I get an RFC (aka: no fun, No::Weird::Stuff, etc) submitted for it.
> and evidently not enough people or resources are explaining as I
> do to my classes that -w and strict are essential for everything they
> write. I won't even show them one-liners without them, I'm that adamant
> about promoting the practice.
<aol>Me too!</aol>
I am amazed that I tell them to use both about *20 times* during the
course of the course :-), yet I get email questions later that
don't have them (which I just bounce and tell them to send it
back when it is "clean" if they want me to look at it).
I even tell them that it is a "firing offense" to leave them off
in projects that I control! Yet they get left off. I guess I
should escalate the presentation of their importance by
removing my shoe and pounding on the table...
> Make Perl as safe as possible by default; let people turn off the safety as
> they get more experienced. Not the other way around.
I am for "strict by default" too (if it can be turned off very easily).
Things have changed radically with regards to who "Perl Users" are.
They used to be "programmers" (substitute any "technology savvy"
name there), who you could trust to know when care was needed
and when it wasn't.
A significant portion of Perl Users nowadays cannot be trusted
with that decision. It would be helpful if perl6 made the
Right Decision for them.
Old-guard Perl Users will have no trouble reading the docs to
find out how to turn strict off.
A depressing portion of today's Perl Users won't find out
how to Be Good if it is not already on :-(
I (along with nearly everybody else here, I expect) do *not*
want to change Perl from a "power programming tool" to a
"teaching language" (despite the Subject here).
But we can at least make "shoot me in the foot" harder to spell :-)
This is Yet Another aspect of getting wider acceptance of perl6
in industry/academia than perl5 can get.
--
Tad McClellan SGML consulting
[EMAIL PROTECTED] Perl programming
Fort Worth, Texas
