r҉ustic cy͠be̸rpu̵nk🤠🤖Jul 31, 2025
Learning how to #Perl
Show threadekariJul 31, 2025
@cypnk The best example of write only language I've encountered 
Show threadBill RickerAug 1, 2025

@ekari @cypnk
having used most of them (I missed Snowball/Icon some how?), I'd have to agree. Tho' i have some lingering affection for APL/J and FORTH, I'm not /doing/ anything with _them_.

Readable literate Perl is at least possible (and is required in the surviving large Perl shops).

Show threadekariAug 1, 2025

@BRicker @cypnk I must clarify that I haven't written a line of Perl in 20+ years. But I do remember, that it always felt easier to start from scratch than to decipher something already written. TIMTOWTDI wasn't great.

With Python everything became simpler.

Show threadBill RickerAug 1, 2025

@ekari @cypnk

Yes, those of us still in #Perl world are those who valued TIMTOWTDI.

20 years ago, there was indeed a lot of Perl that wasn't very extensible.
Things have changed (in part because the people writing bad Perl left).

Show threadChris (so far)

@BRicker @ekari @cypnk Those who valued TIMTOWTDI but understood BSCINABTE settles the stomach.

(But Sometimes Consistency Is Not A Bad Thing Either, for those who don’t know the acronym)

Aug 1, 2025 at 9:30pmWeb
Show threadBill RickerAug 1, 2025

@perigrin @ekari @cypnk
Yeah, in-house consistency is very useful!
Principle of Least Surprise applies to code as well as to UI.

Damian was explicit in _Perl Best Practices_ that internal consistency in a codebase was the prinary goal, that his recommendations were just a starter set (chosen to minimize oopsies) that should be adjusted to local taste. (Uri & I got a couple footnotes and sidebars added in AlphaReading where tastes varied.)