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Perl's Extreme Makeover

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the we-likes-it-don't-we-precious dept.

PurdueGraphicsMan writes "There's an article over at Yahoo! about the upcoming version of Perl (version 6) and some of the new features (RFC list). From the article: "Although Perl 5's expressions are the most sophisticated available and aspired to by other programming languages, "no one pretends for a moment that they're anything but hideously ugly," said Damian Conway, a core Perl developer and associate professor at Monash University in Australia.""

16 of 408 comments (clear)

  1. Whew, backasswards compat-with Perl 5 by microbob · · Score: 4, Funny

    Good! Looks like they kept Perl5 in mind and it will flip into a special mode to execute older Perl5 code.

    Nice!

    -mb

  2. Perl: The Beginning by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    a ,There's been
    a 0 an explosion
    a /|\ at the ASCII
    a | factory!!!!
    a /|

    1. Re:Perl: The Beginning by mrogers · · Score: 5, Funny
      now, you can look at the code and have a pretty good idea what it's doing.

      With the greatest respect, I think you're missing the point of Perl. If you can understand your code, the Indian programmer who replaces you can understand it.

  3. Perl Haikus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Okay, about 99% of the Perl Haikus will not apply anymore.

  4. quick question.... by thepyre · · Score: 5, Funny

    "no one pretends for a moment that they're anything but hideously ugly," Does he mean the lines of code or the programmers themselves?

    1. Re:quick question.... by gUmbi · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yes.

  5. What everyone knows about perl by HappyCitizen · · Score: 5, Funny



    Unreadable code,
    Why would anyone use it?
    Learn a better way.

    ugliness that grows
    into beauty inside of
    your favorite shell

    Arbitrarily
    Nested structures for data;
    Joy of birds in flight.

    As with the spring rain
    Perl is indispensable
    Unquestionable

    http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Perl/Haiku/Abou tP erl

    --
    http://www.beyourowneviloverlord.tk
    http://www.frozenchickenthrowing.tk
    http://www.killercamel.tk
  6. Who would have thought! by Saeed+al-Sahaf · · Score: 5, Funny

    "hideously ugly" and "Perl" in the same paragraph? Who would have thought!

    --
    "Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
  7. Slashdotted. Here's the text by Bingo+Foo · · Score: 5, Funny

    Since the article is slashdotted, I have reprinted the text below:

    $_

    --
    taken! (by Davidleeroth) Thanks Bingo Foo!
    1. Re:Slashdotted. Here's the text by McCow · · Score: 5, Funny

      I can see what everyone is complaining about. Even jokes about Perl are hard to read.

  8. A picture worth 1000 words by Nugget · · Score: 5, Funny

    This pic says it all

  9. Re:Hmmm by __past__ · · Score: 5, Funny
    it's possible to write OpenOffice macros in Perl (Though it probably takes some nasty hacked API to do it)
    A nasty hacked API like, say, Perl, you mean?
    --
    Programming can be fun again. Film at 11.
  10. Ugly code by mr100percent · · Score: 4, Funny
    Neo: Do you always look at it heavily encrypted?
    Cypher: Oh that's not encryption... It's a new Perl script I'm working on...

    The Matrix Bastardization.

  11. Re:No, Python by perlchimp · · Score: 5, Funny

    Java! -- Job Security!

    I am the lead developer on a 200K line commercial bioinformatics program written in Perl. That's job security.

  12. Perl: A write only program language by xtronics · · Score: 5, Funny

    It is better to startover than to try and modify a perl script.

  13. Debian by OverlordQ · · Score: 4, Funny

    *whew* Since I'm running Debian Stable I wont have to worry about learning Perl 6, till Perl 7 is ready to hit the shelves.

    --
    Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.