3
nitwhiz
1y

Why didn't perl make it as go to scripting language but python?

Comments
  • 8
    It let developers to much feeedom in terms of syntax and coding style and developers hate freedom.
  • 1
    @horus I love that comment
  • 3
    Too easy to make a mess
  • 4
    Did you never use perl or did you only use perl?
  • 2
    @iiii same goes for python 100% imo.

    @Oktokolo i see why you ask that. I used it for quite a while for one-off or simple task scripts.
    Now that python is hyped as fuck i tried it, especially with scikit and stuff and i feel like it's exactly as messy and unreadable as perl.
  • 1
    You must've never smelled perl
  • 1
    @nitwhiz nah, python does not give you freedom to almost fully redefine language tokens to produce basically a new language on the fly 😂
  • 2
  • 1
    Learning curve for newcomers mostly.

    That + readability/maintainability + corp backing [google]
  • 2
    Imo perl is too powerful for what it is. Os api + native calls + language flexibility inherited from C -- all that is nice but since other languages took of as buns, meat, cukes, tomatoes and cheese, we no longer need a sauce language in this sandwitch of a system to soak through and taint all the layers. Every layer's got its place and purpose. Perl is a bit too spicy to be as a single layer. It wants to be them all
  • 1
    @netikras how does that not apply to python?
  • 0
    Their slogan was "There is more than one way to do it."

    Two files can look totally different, but do the exact same thing.

    Python obsesses about making things "pythonic."

    Even though you can do something in multiple ways, there's a popular style.

    Consistency won over flexibility.
  • 0
    @nitwhiz unreadable? It's nearly f-ing English. Dem ultimate psuedo code almost
  • 3
    @nitwhiz python: comfy high-level specialized wrappers for low-level stuff, so there's no need to dive into the os package, far less reserved characters used in syntax (i.e. less to decypher when reading the code), py learning curve is A LOT gentler.

    Writing in py, at least to me, feels like writing in js. While writing in perl feels like C++

    But that's just my biased opinion, based solely on my personal xp.
  • 0
    @netikras yeah, python and js share fun factor. In both I feel a ninja
  • 2
    @netikras i get your point and I can't say you're wrong. But my english has semicolons and braces. I want to know where a function definition ends.

    @retoor most of the time, yeah but what the fuck is list comprehension then. Or when and where the 'in' keyword is able to do what and how.
    If you want the ninja feeling, try perl. That's ninja as fuck. It's so ninja, you don't even know what you yourself did.

    To each their own, i just don't like python. Its syntax feels just straight up weird and messy to me. Code what you want.
  • 2
    @nitwhiz I'm with you there :)

    completely
  • 2
    @netikras booeehhh neti. Thought we were forming a pro python thingy
  • 2
    @retoor you were mistaken :)
    I'm not a fan of either of the two. But if I had to, I'd still choose python. Mostly for its popularity. But I'll wish I had chosen perl for its geeky-fun factor
  • 4
    Because it was popularized by non technical people as the end all be all of scripting languages.

    It is still used quite a bit though.

    What asshole would write in perl in 2023 you ask? Me. I fucking love Perl. And I also hate whitespace indentation.

    I still like Python though, but I think there are domains in which Perl is a better fit, and I don't like Python nearly as much as I enjoy perl.

    Perl jobs also pay very nicely where I live.
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