On Fri, May 27, 2011 at 9:40 AM, Nimret Sandhu <[email protected]> wrote: > On May 26, 2011 7:19 PM, "Ingy dot Net" <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> I think he is referring to the pot calling the kettle black, implying that >> Python is as "legacy" as Perl. I concur. > > Again, I don't get it. python has had multiple major releases during the > time that perl 6 has been 'under development'. > > Regardless, perl's been dead to me for a long long time.
We don't need to get into partisan mud-slinging. One thing I've been happy about in SeaPIG is that we have so many members who use multiple languages and are interested in multiple languages, and we can have respectful discussions with partisans of other languages. In fact, we've had contingents of visiting Perlites coming as guests, which have added to our discussions. Ingy originally came as somebody's co-worker (Steve Howell's) when he was doing only doing Perl, and has since become more involved as he has gotten into Python. In fact, I wouldn't mind asking Ingy to do a talk on the current state of Perl and Parrot, and on what it's doing that the Python world might be interested in. CPAN is a perennial interest, as PyPI and easy_install have often been compared unfavorably with it. One thing to keep in mind is that perceptions often outlast realities, often for many years or decades. It is my impression that Perl still has a dedicated group of followers but it's not that "externally active". By that I mean, it's been a long time since I've seen a job listing that required Perl or even requested Perl. Many of us Pythoneers came from a Perl and/or Java background we found stifling, and when we got into Python we found it hard to find a job with Python until it became easier. There's that plus the fact that we prefer Python's "One Way to Do It" over Perl's "Many Ways to Do It" and "Perl poetry". The latter gives too much freedom for bad/ugly/ambiguous code to become widely used and maintained. Although, as my Perl friends point out, it's also possible to write well-structured, well-commented code in Perl, without excess magic. And I assume that over time, the good code in Perl libraries has tended to drive out the bad. -- Mike Orr <[email protected]>
