SPUG: Scope question

[Creede Lambard]

On Wed, 12 Jun 2002, Marc M. Adkins wrote:

> I find Perl congenial in that it _allows_ me to structure my code when I
> need to but does not _force_ me to do so when I don't.  Or to put it another
> way:  there are situations where I have the time, the motivation, and the
> inclination to be a "good" programmer and there are situations where all
> bets are off and I must hack like a demon and devil take all that software
> engineering foo.  The hard part is usually knowing which situation I'm in at
> any given moment.
> 

<rant>

My big gripe is with the people who dismiss Perl as a language because it
doesn't force you to do strong typing, or because it lacks some feature their
favorite language has, or whatever. Honestly. Perl is not C, it's not C++,
it's not Java and it's not Cobol or Snobol or Skrewbol for that matter, it's
Perl, and if you feel you can solve a problem better with a different
language that handles the problem better, that's what you should use.

</rant>

I used to work with a German fellow over at Microsoft who said he didn't like
Perl primarily because it's so unstructured. He prefered C because it imposed
structure on the program. Funny, I would tell him, the lack of structure is
what I like most about Perl. It lets me write programs my way rather than
forcing me to do it the One True Way, whatever that language's idea of the
One True Way might happen to be.


-- 
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Perl Programmer for hire. Reasonable rates. Inquire within.


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