Python's regular expression?

[Edward Elliott]

bruno at modulix wrote:
> From a readability/maintenance POV, Perl is a perfect nightmare.

It's certainly true that perl lacks the the eminently readable quality of
python.  But then so do C, C++, Java, and a lot of other languages.

And I'll grant you that perl is more susceptible to the 'executable
line-noise' style than most other languages.  This results from its
heritage as a quick-and-dirty awk/sed type text processing language.

But perl doesn't *have* to look that way, and not every perl program is a
'perfect nightmare'.  If you follow good practices like turning on strict
checking, using readable variable names, avoiding $_, etc, you can produce
pretty readable and maintainable code.  It takes some discipline, but it's
very doable.  I've worked with some perl programs for over 5 years without
any trouble.  About the only thing you can't avoid are the sigils
everywhere.

Would I recommend perl for readable, maintainable code?  No, not when better
options like Python are available.  But it can be done with some effort.