Re: Why we're here

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From:

abigail

Date:

July 24, 2000 10:51

Subject:

Re: Why we're here

Message ID:

20000724175028.673.qmail@foad.org

On Mon, Jul 24, 2000 at 03:46:06PM +0200, Jesús Quiroga wrote:
> At 14:28 24/07/00, you wrote:
> ></LURK>
> >Hmmm...  I'm really not enough of a Guru to be commenting to this list, yet,
> >in this context, not being a guru makes me uniquely qualified to comment.
> 
> If this list were for gurus only, I would have to unsubscribe.
> 
> 
> >Could some one explain to me in what way perl is "too complex?"  I came to
> >perl not from the UNIX/C++/C background that it was supposedly designed to
> >attract, but from the Windows/VB background that are its staunchest
> >opponents.  I did not find it hard or complex, or difficult.
> 
> Perl isn't. The problem is the perception of Perl as hard, complex and
> difficult. Lots of people still don't break the ice. We should fight that
> and recruit as many new users as possible.

I disagree.

Perl *is* complex. And that's a feature. It's because of that complexity
that Perl is what it is. And that it has the followers it has now.

There are many, many programmers that prefer simpler languages. There are
languages that serve them. Java and Python, for instance. That's good,
that's fine, and there's no need to move Perl towards those languages.

Let's focus on making perl, as possible Perl, better. Make it faster,
more maintainable. But don't change the language into something that
isn't Perl.

> >To sum up, "Don't change the language, change people's perception of the
> >language."
> 
> We are about to change the language, in fact :-) Why not introduce some
> changes to help the marketing strategy that Perl should have in order to
> grow? Marketing and PR are different things to me.
> 
> I think the best possible marketing for Perl6 would be to be able to say
> that Perl6 is more powerful, flexible and useful than Perl5 for those who
> already know Perl, AND simpler and easier to learn for new users.

Eh, yeah, that's what they say about Python too. (Not that there's
anything wrong with Python. But if you want Python, use Python. I want
Perl, not something else).

Abigail

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