SPUG: A morality tale of Perl versus Python

[Steve Sarapata]

As Ben Obi-Wan said to the young Jedi programmer:
"Use the source, Luke." 

And I guess YODA probably never heard of remarks in either language.

(Just being a spoiler...)


-----Original Message-----
From: Andrew Sweger [mailto:andy at n2h2.com]
Sent: Wednesday, December 01, 1999 10:22 AM
To: Seattle Perl Users Group
Subject: SPUG: A morality tale of Perl versus Python


I am passing this on from a twisted (Java programming) friend at ATL:

Subject: A morality tale of Perl versus Python
Date: Wed, 3 Nov 1999 19:30:01 PST
From: funkster at midwinter.com
Newsgroups: rec.humor.funny
Followup-To: rec.humor.d

This has been percolating in the back of my mind for a while.  It's
a scene from _The Empire Strikes Back_, reinterpreted to serve a
valuable moral lesson for aspiring programmers.

___________________________________________________________________________
EXTERIOR: DAGOBAH -- DAY

           With Yoda strapped to his back, Luke climbs up one of the
        many thick vines that grow in the swamp until he reaches the
        Dagobah statistics lab. Panting heavily, he continues his
        exercises -- grepping, installing new packages, logging in as
        root, and writing replacements for two-year-old shell scripts
        in Python.

YODA: Code!  Yes.  A programmer's strength flows from code maintainability.
      But beware of Perl.  Terse syntax... more than one way to do it...
      default variables.  The dark side of code maintainability are they.
      Easily they flow, quick to join you when code you write.  If once
      you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny,
      consume you it will.

LUKE: Is Perl better than Python?

YODA: No... no... no.  Quicker, easier, more seductive.

LUKE: But how will I know why Python is better than Perl?

YODA: You will know.  When your code you try to read six months from
      now.
___________________________________________________________________________

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