[Melbourne-pm] perl is a terrible language to learn

[deepfryed at gmail.com]

Touché Jacinta. Well said.

I don't like Perl because its concise and neither do I claim it to be
better than other languages. I like Perl because I find it more
malleable than most languages and comes with a HUGE set of useful
libraries on CPAN. It's also the first language I loved programming
in. Although ruby shares some of that love now, Perl is still my
programming language of choice.

I don't use Java because I like typing out my code instead of relying
on auto-generation and Java gives me RSI. But if you like Java and
love programming in it, I am happy for you. All that matters is that
you get the job done and at the end of the day love what you are
doing.

Cheers,
Bharanee





On 9/18/08, Jacinta Richardson <jarich at perltraining.com.au> wrote:
> G'day John,
>
> Perl isn't always a terrible language to learn.  If you're already familiar
> with
> programming principles, or if you're learning in a structured manner with
> someone who can give you feedback and help each step of the way; it's an
> easy,
> fun and beautiful language to learn.  At Perl Training Australia we get
> people
> with a wide range of programming skills on our courses, and most of them
> really
> enjoy the experience and pick up Perl pretty quickly.
>
> On the other hand, if you're learning:
> 	* how to program in general
> 	* how to set up your system (Apache etc)
> 	* CGI programming requirements (not required for Perl at first)
>
> AND Perl, on your own without an expert to hand, on a poorly documented
> system
> (xampp) I can imagine that you might feel turned off.  This isn't really
> Perl's
> fault.
>
> I'm glad to hear that you're enjoying learning Java.  I imagine it was
> easier to
> install than Apache, xammp and Perl together.  I imagine that you have a
> better
> beginner's guide too.  Java's a fine language to learn on your own as a
> first
> time language, although I strongly recommend you find a good Java user group
> (even if it's not local) because I'm sure that you'll still hit problems and
> snags that don't make sense.  In addition to a user group you may also find
> some
> benefit in joining Java Junkies: http://www.javajunkies.org/
>
> Once you've learned how to program in general, and you are more comfortable
> with
> your system, I recommend having another look at Python and Perl.  All three
> languages solve an almost equivalent problem space, they just have different
> approaches.  I'm not saying that Perl should be your one true love when it
> comes
> to programming.  But to be a better programmer, it's a good idea to have at
> least some skill in multiple languages, just so you understand how those
> tools work.
>
> If you expect to find Perl to still be hard to learn, Perl Training
> Australia
> offers a 5% discount to Melbourne Perl Mongers who come on our courses.  ;)
> Even if not, I highly recommend downloading our course notes and working
> through
> them (http://perltraining.com.au/notes.html).  None of our exercises require
> knowing anything about Apache, xampp or CGI programming.
>
> All the best,
>
> 	Jacinta
>
> --
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