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Larry Wall on Perl 6
Nate writes "Linux Format magazine has an interview with Larry Wall, the eccentric linguist and coder behind Perl. Larry discusses some of the new Perl 6 features ready to rock the world, and if you're not planning to move from Perl 5.8, he has a few musings on that too."
"For the full interview, in which Larry discusses more about O'Reilly and the upcoming Perl 6, grab a copy of LXF 75."
Annoying.
R
Homer: Facts are meaningless, you can use facts to prove anything that's remotely true!
Gentlemen, the time has come for a serious discussion on whether or
not to continue using Perl for serious programming projects. As I will
explain, I feel that Perl needs to be retired, much the same way that
Fortran, Cobol and C have been. Furthermore, allow me to be so bold
as to suggest a superior replacement to this outdated language.
To give you a little background on this subject, I was recently asked
to develop a client/server project on a Unix platform for a Fortune
500 company. While I've never coded in Perl before I have coded in VB for
fifteen years, and in Java for over ten, I was stunned to see how
poorly Perl fared compared to these two, more low-level languages.
Perl's biggest difficulty, as we all know, is the fact that it is by far
one of the slowest languages in existance, especially when compared to
more modern languages such as Java and C#. Although the reasons for
this are varied, the main reasons seems to be the way Perl requires a
programmer to laboriously work with chunks of memory.
Requiring a programmer to manipulate blocks of memory is a tedious way
to program. This was satisfactory back in the early days of coding,
but then again, so were punchcards. By using what are called
"pointers" a Perl programmer is basically requiring the computer to do
three sets of work rather than one. The first time requires the
computer to duplicate whatever is stored in the memory space "pointed
to" by the pointer. The second time requires it to perform the needed
operation on this space. Finally the computer must delete the
duplicate set and set the values of the original accordingly.
Clearly this is a horrendous use of resources and the chief reason why
Perl is so slow. When one looks at a more modern (and a more serious)
programming language like Java, C# or - even better - Visual Basic
that lacks such archaic coding styles, one will also note a serious
speed increase over Perl.
So what does this mean for the programming community? I think clearly
that Perl needs to be abandonded. There are two candidates that would be
a suitable replacement for it. Those are Java and Visual Basic.
Having programmed in both for many years, I believe that VB has the
edge. Not only is it slightly faster than Java its also much easier to
code in. I found Perl to be confusing, frightening and intimidating with
its non-GUI-based coding style. Furthermore, I like to see the source
code of the projects I work with. Java's source seems to be under the
monopolistic thumb of Sun much the way that GCC is obscured from us by
the marketing people at the FSF. Microsoft's "shared source" under
which Visual Basic is released definately seems to be the most fair
and reasonable of all the licenses in existance, with none of the
harsh restrictions of the BSD license. It also lacks the GPLs
requirement that anything coded with its tools becomes property of the
FSF.
I hope to see a switch from Perl to VB very soon. I've already spoken
with various luminaries in the Perl coding world and most are eager to
begin to transition. Having just gotten off the phone with Mr. Alan
Cox, I can say that he is quite thrilled with the speed increases that
will occur when the Linux kernel is completely rewritten in Visual
Basic. Richard Stallman plans to support this, and hopes that the
great Swede himself, Linux Torvaldis, won't object to renaming Linux
to VB/Linux. Although not a Perl coder himself, I'm told that Slashdot's
very own Admiral Taco will support this on his web site. Finally,
Dennis Ritchie is excited about the switch!
Thank you for your time. Happy coding.
George W. Bush was second, though.
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
You sir, are a cretin.
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
O'Reilly had run into really tough times because of the plunge in book sales, which was already starting before 9/11 but very much accelerated at that point.
I remember on 9/11 thinking: That's it, I will never buy any more books! The terrorists have won.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
So much has now become clear about Perl!
Don't get me wrong though, Perl is my code of choice.
--Keeping the flame wars alive, one post at a time
Translation: "Perl 6 code will be the most unreadable Perl ever."
Rich And Stupid is not so bad as Working For Rich And Stupid.
The dead tree version had on the cover a very Larryish
quote - (roughly) We have 80% of Perl6 done and we are now working on the next 80%.
Larry is a God but Perl makes my head hurt just thinking about it...
Obfuscation by design?
XML is a known as a key material required to create SMD: Software of Mass Destruction
Now that would make a great O'Reilly title:
Application Development in Perl: Obfuscation by Design
Forgive me Larry... I must be grumpy today.
XML is a known as a key material required to create SMD: Software of Mass Destruction
This must be an obscure usage of the word survive of which I was previously unaware.
XML is a known as a key material required to create SMD: Software of Mass Destruction
Larry Wall has announced plans to hardwire Perl 6 into his brain to make it easier for him to do updates in the shower.
GetOuttaMySpace - The Anti-Social Network
No, that would be Intelligent Obfuscation.
Are you having a Homer Simpson DUH!!! moment yet?
what?