I miss Perl.

I miss Perl.

I once loved Perl.  It was the niftiest language I had ever seen.  It
let me do wonderfully complex things with ease and grace.  It was a
language for the beginner and the master.  It accepted all philosophies
equally and without shame.

When I first used Perl, I wrote simple scripts to tie other things
together.  I didn't use -w, and I didn't use strict.  I was thrilled
by how much better Perl was than /bin/sh.

As I learned more Perl, I began writing true programs.  I wrote an
application of moderate size, that I still use on a daily basis.  I
was overjoyed at how much better Perl was than C.

I learned about -w, and use strict.  My code changed and became cleaner,
more structured.  Some days, though, I just needed a quick hack.  Perl
happily accepted me either way.  Structured applications, or one-off
scripts, it didn't matter.  Truly this was a programmer's language.

And then I made a horrible mistake.  I decided I wanted to learn even
more about Perl, about the internals, about the way it was made.  I
thought that someday I might even have the chance to contribute
something back to the language I loved.  And so I joined perl5-porters,
where the wizards lived.  I regret that day, for innocence once lost
can never be regained.

Sausage, politics, and Perl.  Some things, you should not know the
making of.

I don't love Perl any more.  I know that this is silly; it is still the
same language I discovered years ago.  Nothing has changed.  But I find
that I can't use it any more without being reminded of ideas that were
crushed beneath overwhelming tirades of words.

I still think ?? was a nice idea.

I've lost hope that things will change now.  Perhaps they will, but I
don't really expect it any more.  And even if they do, I don't know if
I will ever come to love Perl again.  It's a language to me now.  One
of my tools.  You don't love a hammer, do you?

I do miss Perl, though.

                     - Damien

• Re: I miss Perl. by Tom Christiansen
• Re: I miss Perl. by Ted Ashton
• I miss Perl. by Damien Neil
• Re: I miss Perl. by Larry Wall
• Re: I miss Perl. by Elaine -HFB- Ashton
• Re: I miss Perl. by Larry Wall
• Re: I miss Perl. by Elaine -HFB- Ashton