Re: Becoming Disenheartened - Everyone talks about Python and says Perl is old n

On Tue, 28 Sep 2004 12:20:50 +0100, Gavin Henry wrote:

> I really like Perl, but lately everywhere I seem to go and talk to say I
> shouldn't be learning Perl as it's old and Python is better.
>

Are you old enough to remember when Java came out?  The hype reached
heights not seen outside of a political convention.  All other languages
were obsolete, schools would be dropping classes in all other languages in
favor of Java, you needed to get up to speed in Java immediately or find
another career, Java would eventually bring peace to the Middle East and
cause gasoline prices to fall so low that it wouldn't be worth metering.
I even saw an article that claimed that MS would be writing the new
Windows in Java!!!

The reality - just another language that some people use, some people
like, some people hate.

I like Perl and use it for almost everything now.  I can crank out a
usable program by myself in a short time while the C++ guys are still
tracing and trapping to find that last memory leak in a program that is
already six months late.

You want to try easy graphics?  Try the canvas in Perl/TK.  I was playing
with it (actually learning it and trying to figure out just what it would
do) and built the gui interface for a Civilization clone game in an
unbelievably short time and in just a few pages of code.  If I had tried
that in Delphi (which is the only thing that I regret leaving behind when
I left Windows), the source line count would have been astronomical.

Go with what works and forget the editorials.

Hagar