Re^5: Curious about Perl's strengths in 2018 -- freedom

Larry Wall, as quoted in Re^7: Curious about Perl's strengths in 2018, nailed it in two hammerings while it took me 20:

Perl has always considered itself primarily a programmer-centric language, while Python has always considered itself to be more institution-centric. So in a sense it's a bit dumbed down, much like Java. You'll note both of those languages make their greatest appeal to managers.

Of course what he says is not divine law. My very limited experience agrees though.

Regarding JavaScript (JS/ES), interesting article here (https://auth0.com/blog/a-brief-history-of-javascript/) about the influence of Java on JS/ES and the climate and politics it was created in, e.g. Netscape. Reminds me of a Huckleberry Finn of languages vs the Tom Sawyers and, god forbid, the Sid Sawyers. Brrrrrr. So maybe JS/ES was created as a child who escaped the attention of parents and plays all day long on the street (picture: fire hydrants splashing water). Could JS/ES be the last of that breed? Has any other child been allowed to play all day long since 2000?

bliako

Comment on Re^5: Curious about Perl's strengths in 2018 -- freedom

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Re^6: Curious about Perl's strengths in 2018 -- freedom by LanX (Saint) on Apr 15, 2018 at 12:14 UTC
Interesting article about JS, but it's again hiding the influence of Perl here. Apart from syntax is Perl the closest language. With 3 major failures: 1. It's totally unfortunate that Eich chose to allow Perl like scalar transformations with the limited set of Java operators. The DWIM magic rules for `==` and `+` are annoying because `eq` and `.` are missing. 2. Also is JS hampered by implementing associative arrays as objects. Objects in JS are (in Perl terms) best described as tied hashes, where missing keys trigger a look up into a chain of "prototype" hashes. While I like prototypical inheritance it's annoying if I need to deal with inheritance when I only want a hash. 3. Hoisting of `var` declarations and missing block scope leads to far too many ugly work arounds to mimic the effects of `my` Cheers Rolf _{(addicted to the Perl Programming Language and ☆☆☆☆ :) Wikisyntax for the Monastery}	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^6: Curious about Perl's strengths in 2018 -- freedom by Crosis (Beadle) on Apr 15, 2018 at 09:59 UTC
What counts as "programmer-centric" is very subjective. Some might say that describes Clojure very adequately but Larry Wall himself for example is on record telling Usenet how aesthetically unappealing he finds any form of Lisp.	[reply]


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