OO misconceptions

[Peter Hansen]

Tim Hammerquist wrote:
> My only regret is that so many people in this NG are so violently
> anti-Perl.  I always thought that if someone as cynical, stubborn, and
> arrogant as I am can love both languages, anybody could.  

I wouldn't have said "violently".  That is to say, I haven't actually 
*killed* anyone for using Perl... yet.

And I consider my cynicism, stubbornness, and arrogance to be right 
up there with the best of them.  (In fact, my absolutely _unparalleled_
arrogance is _certain_ to be my own downfall, and _nothing_ you could 
say would convince me otherwise. ;-)

Nevertheless, I feel compelled to say that I believe there may be
applications for which Perl is the better language, but I'm fairly
sure (a) I'd have an argument against _almost_ any example proposed,
and (b) the few I might not argue against would likely be "better in
Perl" only because of some ugly situation such as maintaining 
compatibility with a legacy system, supported by programmers who 
know only Perl and don't want to change, and an application already 
working and therefore not in need of maintenance of any kind.

Any other application, and I would probably say Python was a 
better choice...  

> There's always a matter of choosing the right tool for the job, 
> but this is reality and no one language can be the "right" tool 
> for _all_ jobs, regardless of how much I love Python.

Ah, but I would readily admit Python is not the right tool for
*all* jobs, just a better one than Perl in essentially any case
I've seen to date, IMHO.  I remain open-minded enough to admit
that someday I might have a Perl program shoved in front of me
for which I'd be forced to admit I'm wrong...  I'm still waiting.

> My apologies to the group at large.
> Tim Hammerquist

This group is scary in its degree of both tolerance and forgiveness.
(Hey, they even let me stay here.. so far. :)

Cheers,
----------------------
Peter Hansen, P.Eng.
peter at engcorp.com