[LUNI] Linux Programming

[Curt Russell Crandall]

Hi,  I'm the author of the mythical programming language called CRAMP (or
maybe CRAP, haven't decided yet).  I totally agree with Martin, Perl can
be a nightmare if you have to maintain someone else's code.  I personally
think there are too many ways to do things in the language.  I am also
angry that Larry Wall has to keep making basic syntax just a *little*
different from C as to make it a pain in the ass when switching back and
forth.  i.e. if-elsif instead of if-else if.  Now with Perl 6 and the
"switch" statement he has to go and do it again!!!  Arrghh!

So far, with Perl 6 it looks pretty much like Perl 5, but just enough
different to piss me off!  Guess I have to give it a chance first, but
many of the apocolypses have disappointed me.

Now that said, I think Perl is as close to the perfect language as I've
used.  And i'm coming from a FORTRAN background which you'd think would
make me biased towards Python.  I don't know much about Python, it looks
very Perl-like in many ways, but I won't touch it for 2
reasons:  1.) Little demand for it in the job market, 2.) switching
editors and even terminal emulations has caused me problems when I've
played with it.  I'm lazy and don't like being inconvenienced, so little
things like that turn me off.

Is Perl a good first language... I don't think so.  I think it's a great
language if you are familiar with C and shell scripting.  Is Java a good
first language... I don't even think it's a good language for advanced
programmers.  The syntax is a perversion of C++... no multiple
inheritence, need to code OO style even if the program doesn't call for
it.  Not good.  I like, though, how you can use jar (zip/tar) files so
it's easier to pass around over the net.  I also like the built in GUI
libs.  You don't see anything like that in Perl... you generally need Tk,
Qt or Glade/Gtk+, etc.  A lightweight GUI lib that's entirely Perl and not
married to the window manager would be very nice in Perl.

Client side Perl, what about PerlEx, Embedded Perl or Mason... is that
maybe what you want Scott?

Personally, I'd like to see an ANSI language standard.... a base syntax,
then add ons for things like OO, GUIs, etc.  Then let everyone go out and
build the best VM, compiler, interpreter, etc.  I know it would piss
everyone off because they won't be able to choose the language, but it'd
be nice if we didn't have 50000 languages to know with the a new flavor of
the month coming out everytime I turn around.  Ok, i'm being a bit
sarcastic, but you get my drift.

OUT