Comparing perl and python

[François Pinard]

c_cazabon at hotmail.com (Charles Cazabon) writes:
> Aahz Maruch claimed in <88vtfj$egl$1 at nntp6.atl.mindspring.net>:

> >Remember that Perl is optimized to be a "super AWK".  And IMO, that's
> >about all it's good for.

> Best description I ever heard was "`sed' on crack".

Even if I am a Python lover now, I'm a previous Perl addict, and Perl was
not that bad[1].  So, even if humorous, such judgements are derogative
and unfair, and we should stay more open minded.

Perl is used for a wide variety of applications.  It has a lot of dedicated
contributors, a good organisation, to the point it is undoubtly a social
phenomenon in itself.  We should at least recognise these facts, and
even copy the good parts.  Larry Wall is absolutely overwhelmed by now,
but at a time he was more accessible, I found him to be a very attaching
and charismatic guy.  However, I would not say that much from his troops,
who quite destroyed the initial spirit, in my opinion.  Sad for Larry...

I just hope that Python will learn from, and avoid Perl social mistakes.
That would not be an easy challenge, if Python starts growing too fast...

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[1] It's just that Python is better! :-).

-- 
François Pinard   http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/~pinard