hi, i was interested if perl is still relevant in this day and age. Perl has been on the decline for a very long time now. Perl 6 (now named 'raku) not being backwards compatible with perl 5 code made the already small perl community even smaller by splitting it in half. A good example is lisp with it’s thousands of different dialects.
Is it still worth using or is it bound to legacy software forever? Like cobol.
For me, Python replaced Perl 15 years ago. I know Perl is a great language, but it’s too “write-only.” Python replaced both BASIC and Perl at the same time, even with the problems of migration from v2 to v3. Python can also do scripts to replace Bash and PowerShell. I don’t see myself learning Perl now, it would be a waste of time.
Perl was revolutionary at the time with CGI and regexes, but it’s not needed anymore.
I wish python was not indentation aware. It has discouraged me from learning it.
Edit: downvoted by fanbois. Look, I’m not married to my tools.
Even if you’re writing JavaScript, you should be using proper indentation. What an odd thing to keep you from learning it.
I write code, indentation is something that the editor just does automatically. If I want to change indent settings I just mark the complete buffer, press tab, and magic happens.
I’ve been using python for various stuff for a few years now as well, and the indent thing still annoys me.
Sometimes I want to write a quick oneliner or a quick algorithm to test things out. Or not worry about indentation when trying a solution I might discard in five minutes.
With Python, I don’t have that choice.
If it is actually a single line ID argue that you do.
Single line ID? What do you mean?
I think it’s an autocorrect typo. Should be: If it is actually a single line, I’d argue that you do.
No, it really is horrible. I’m an old timer who learned on FORTRAN and other languages that were still suffering from the punchcard era. Making logic based on character positioning, and adding unnecessary restriction, is just so frustrating and tedious. We got away from such constraints by the 1990’s. Let’s not go back.
Sure enough, my kid’s Comp Sci teacher tried to use Python because he read how easy it is to use, but no one succeeded because of the formatting. No one succeeded except my kid, who also became a rock star by helping kids reformat. Anyhow, back when computers were primitive and limited, such restrictions were understandable. They’re not anymore.
Currently I’m a fan of Groovy. All the capability of Java without silly requirements like semi-colons. All the simplicity of Python without silly formatting restrictions
If that’s your only reason, I’d encourage to try it anyway. Logical indentation is initially weird but it can be overcome very fast.
I might! Thanks.
That is a bizarre opinion.
Nope. It isn’t.
lol, then you just don’t like Python. You can’t disassociate the two things.
Yup, I don’t like it because of it.
It has never been an issue for me in 20 years. If you move code, you cut a whole paragraph, paste, and indent appropriately.
If I move code in non-python code, I cut a whole paragraph, paste, and I’m done if that’s all I wanted to do.
Your code won’t be indented properly, same problem as Python unless you have a formatting tool in your setup.
It won’t matter. It will still compile correctly every time, as opposed to python, and that’s my point. Choice. Choice is the key here.
You don’t like your good ol’ COBOL??
:-)
Is COBOL indentation aware?
To the extreme :-)
Today I learned. Thanks!
It’s punch card-column aware, if you’re talking about that.