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Interviews: Ask Perl Creator Larry Wall a Question
Larry Wall created the Perl programming language (as well as the Unix utility patch, and the Usenet client rn ). This Christmas saw the release of Perl 6 -- a "sister" language to the original Perl -- that's also free and open source, after 15 years of development. Now Larry has agreed to give some of his time to answer your questions (joking that "I doubt my remarks will be quite as controversial as, say, Donald Trump's, but I suspect I could say an interesting thing or two...")
Larry also gave Slashdot's very first interview back in 2002 -- so it's high time we had him back for more heartfelt and entertaining insights. Ask as many questions as you'd like, but please, one per comment. (And feel free to also leave your suggestions for who Slashdot should interview next.) We'll pick the very best questions -- and forward them on to Larry Wall himself.
Larry also gave Slashdot's very first interview back in 2002 -- so it's high time we had him back for more heartfelt and entertaining insights. Ask as many questions as you'd like, but please, one per comment. (And feel free to also leave your suggestions for who Slashdot should interview next.) We'll pick the very best questions -- and forward them on to Larry Wall himself.
Why is the syntax of perl so bad? It lends itself to scripts that even the authors can't understand after a week or two.
Why do you think so few people have adopted Perl as their language of choice?
Perl used to be central to so many things (the 'glue' language for the internet), but seems to be slowly falling out of use in deference to javascript, java, python, vbscript/powershell, etc. It's the language I used in my first job as a system administrator (back around the time you gave your first interview), and I loved it.
With so many years between the announcement of Perl 6 and it's completion, many people moved on to other solutions or technologies. Perl 6 is here now, but why should I use it?
"Murphy was an optimist" - O'Toole's commentary on Murphy's Law
As a linguist, you surely have some thoughts to share on the English language predominance in the IT field (as well as many others). Do you think that it may somewhat shape the way programming languages are designed, as well as IT infrastructures and ultimately our societies, in comparison of what it would be if we would use a no-nation-native language such as Esperanto? By the way, did you know Perligata[1] and Babylscript[2]?
[1] http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~damian/papers/HTML/Perligata.html/
[2] http://www.babylscript.com/
Why has perl6 flopped?
And "I don't think it has" is not a valid answer.
What do you think about Python . . . ?
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Perl is proven to be fundamentally broken. Here are two very entertaining videos about how to exploit weird array casting, hashes and so on.
I really think every perl programmer should have seen it.
https://media.ccc.de/v/31c3_-_...
https://media.ccc.de/v/32c3-71...
What do you say about this criticism and the exploited flaws?
It seems like a lot of industries have "esteemed individuals" who are given the benefit of the doubt. Priests, rabbis, imams, tenured professors, elite actors and directors, etc. Maybe in technology we have people like Larry Wall, David Heinemeier Hansson, Douglas Crockford, Paul Graham, etc. What are your thoughts on this?
I like having the feeling of esteem. It warms my heart when I think about what I've learned reading Fred Brooks, Seth Godin, Donald Knuth, etc. I hold you all in revence. I don't think this is such a bad thing. Would I blindly follow whatever any you say? No, of course not. But wisdom is wisdom, and experience is experience, and those of you who have it, and have had it, and have written to me about it, are very much appreciated and held in high esteem. I think this is all very good and healthy and perfetly natural. Thank you!
Which large companies are still using Perl in production? I can name Booking.com, but do you know any others?
I'm a big fan of Perl and still use it when I can for various personal projects and have been known to introduce it in official work-related tasks (where engineers were using batch files or shell scripts, etc.). I love Perl's terseness and flexibility. I learned regex from Perl in my first development job and it has stuck with me through a dozen different languages.
However, as many others have mentioned, it is falling out of favor, and in fact there are very few development shops that even have a need or desire for it. I've looked for Perl jobs and they rarely come up. It seems that most back-ends are now being written in any number of next-gen scripting languages like Python, JavaScript (NodeJS), and Swift. I don't see the advantages of these, but it's often hard to explain to colleagues, CTOs, managers, etc. the value of Perl over the newest trends. And Perl "6" is meaningless because to everyone else it's still Perl. Why should we choose Perl 6 over the new establishment?
Can you give us a glimpse into what your main work computer looks like? What's the hardware and OS, your preferred editor and browser, and any crucial software you want to give a shout-out to?
1. According to most metrics Perl 5 usage hasn't decreased but there is a perception problem indicating it has. Perl usage outstrips python by a lot but many think the opposite is true. Why do you think this perception exists? Is it related to calling the new language Perl 6 giving people the false impression that Perl 5 hasn't progressed as dramatically as it has in the past few years?
2. As a Perl 5 programmer, why should I care about Perl 6? Perl is most used by sysadmins and Perl 5 of some sort can be found on all major *nix distributions out of the box. Without this support Perl 6 might as well not even exist for this group who already have to code for Perl versions a decade out of date in many cases. How, if at all, do you see Perl 6 resolving this problem or do you see Perl 6 hitting a different base altogether?
I'd like to express my deep, unending thanks for building something that is really wonderful, Perl, and a wonderful community. I made a living with Perl, the first postmodern language of which I am aware, and derived a lot of enjoyment from TMTOWTDI, and contributed back to the community on Perl Monks at the time. It was a lot of fun to meet some of the famous, talented Perl visionaries then. I enjoy thinking in Perl and it has made me stronger.
I'd like to get into Perl 6 which having stolen all the cool stuff from the other languages appears likely to be the most advanced and artistic of all them. At the very least I look forward to being able one day to think in Perl 6.
Can you provide some examples to /. readers about why you like Perl 6, and what dimensions of awesomeness are waiting beyond Python and Javascript? I think you would be a good person to rouse a wakeup call.
That, and if you have a moment, how about a good reason or three (efficiency? creativity? extensibility? ability to suggest further growth? having lots of PhDs?) why Google should promote Perl 6 in-house and support the growth of the Perl 6 language and implementations. Perhaps sponsor completion of the Perl 6 kernel for Jupyter project? How about sponsor some people to document and make accessible free books? What are some Perl 6 initiatives that could use some eyes if not $$?
Hi Larry, As a long time perl hacker, and contributor of various modules to CPAN I'm wondering what the rational was behind the major syntax changes in perl 6? I've read various items trying to explain it, but none so far have done a very good job. Admittedly I haven't fully grasp perl 6 yet (mostly because it involves learning a new language I thought I knew well).