[Wellington-pm] How much perl is out there?

[Daniel Pittman]

Dan Horne <dan.horne at redbone.co.nz> writes:
>> On 30/05/2010 2:19 p.m., Daniel Pittman wrote:
>> 
>>>> Ruby looks promising. I have been learning it for several days and feel
>>>> that I has the power of most of others (perl, python, java, etc..)    
>>> 
>>> Just don't fall for their "objects all the way" and "meta-programming"
>>> bollocks; when you start to poke at it each interpreter is randomly
>>> different, but they pretty much all make it impossible to do serious
>>> meta-programming because the internals are randomly incoherent and contain
>>> strange bundles of oddly thrown together code.
>>> 
>>> It isn't terrible, I grant you, but it surely is not as impressive as their
>>> marketing makes out.  (Not, really, that any language is. :)
>
> Perl provides fab Meta Programming functionality via Moose (or more
> specifically, Class::MOP).  It's complete and elegant, and abstracts away
> Perl's crufty bits ...

Hah.  Tell me how I use a non-standard method combination, or what a decent
API to one would look like, and I will be less reluctant to agree. ;)

It does a great job of being a reasonable meta-programming environment that is
absolutely compatible with the stock Perl OO model, though.

> so you don't have to wonder about whether "the internals are randomly
> incoherent and contain strange bundles of oddly thrown together code."

Seriously, though, the "Perl Enlightenment", of which Moose is a part, is
doing a lot to improve Perl5.  The new release schedule upstream, also, is
helping move it forward quickly and see more enhancements.

        Daniel
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