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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.""

4 of 408 comments (clear)

  1. We're all going to die by StuWho · · Score: 5, Interesting
    "But Perl also will remain a language with the diehard developer fans who are the impetus behind its popularity. "Personally, I'm hoping to get Parrot embedded into games and office suites," Sugalski said. "I for one would love to write my word processing macros and game scripts in Perl or Forth rather than in whatever hand-rolled language someone's come up with."

    Back to Pac Man and Vi then...

    --
    "If you think nobody cares if you're alive, try missing a couple of car payments." Earl Wilson
  2. Re:Anyone who intimately knows 5 by smack_attack · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Learn 5, because it will probably take a few months until 6 is standard. Either way, in a few years you will look back on whatever you coded today and shake your head in shame. /used to printf() every line when he learned PHP

    --

    Hammer of Truth
  3. Re:why rev a language ? by furry_marmot · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Because it's a high-level language with lots of sytactic sugar that made a whole new level of flexibility in programming. You can be loose, sloppy, tight, properly formatted, or write one-liners with equal ease.

    I agree with the main topic that other languages aspired to its expressiveness. The problem, from the point of view of a Perl hacker like me, is that some of them have actually outdone it, primarily by creating similar power, expressiveness, and simplicity but without being so ugly *and* being OO. Ruby and Python are pretty much the motivators for the upgrade.

  4. Ever heard of comments? by cliveholloway · · Score: 5, Interesting
    They're great. They help you to remember and comprehend code you wrote a while back. If you start a line with a "#" you can follow it with a comment.

    If you're looking at code *you wrote* for over an hour without understanding it, you only have yourself to blame. Unless you're coding in brainfuck, I suppose.

    tch

    cLive ;-)

    --
    -- Trinity in high heels carrying a whip: The donimatrix - there is no spoonerism