[NCLUG] Looking at programming languages...

[Alan Silverstein]

My $0.02...  I happen to have recent experience using both Perl (a lot)
and Ruby (a little) in my contract job, where we do a lot of Linux (RH3).

> PERL - Available everywhere, easy to write.  The GUI stuff, though is
> kind of convoluted for n00b's, and it tends to be a write only
> language.

For the sake of discussion here, but to be blunt:  To me, a comment like
this says you aren't disciplined and thoughtful enough when you write
the program.  Which, in my opinion, seems to be true of 90% of all
programmers.  (It amazes me what mind-to-mind unportable garbage is
produced by so-called professionals, highly paid, who can't seem to
express themselves clearly, even when it counts.)

That said, Perl is certainly a language that, like C++, INVITES people
to write garbage.  "Look how clever I can be..."

But nothing says you MUST be sucked in by the dark side of the Force.
Thoughtful consideration of commenting, formatting, choice of methods
and object names, etc, can produce code that anyone reasonably
comfortable with the language should be able to read.

> Ruby - The language is brilliant.  It does everything just as you
> would want and expect.

Eh?  In my limited experience, the actual syntax is stupid, and the
error messages are terrible.  (Don't ask me to elaborate, though, it's
been a while.)  I was underwhelmed, it looked like another hack job, a
"doctoral dissertation", where, like ksh, the features were cool and you
couldn't help wanting to use the tool, but you'd always hate the lack of
"end user friendliness," the purposeful or mindless snobbery of the
authors.  You know, "This is good enough for me, I like it, what's your
problem?  No one is forcing you to use it."  What I call "software
macho."

Maybe I'm weird, but I don't consider my software a success unless it
seduces users into wanting to use it, and even enjoying the experience.
Likewise, I want people reading my programs to say, "yeah, I followed
it, so what?..."  Which is about the highest praise you can ever get.

Cheers,
Alan Silverstein