Slashdot Log In
Ask Larry Wall
Posted by
Roblimo
on Mon Aug 26, 2002 11:00 AM
from the from-the-master's-mouth-to-your-ear dept.
from the from-the-master's-mouth-to-your-ear dept.
About what? Perl is probably a good topic choice. No one knows more about Perl than Larry Wall, right? We'll send 10 of the highest-moderated questions to Larry by email, and post his answers when we get them back. Note: Due to Slashdot's line length restrictions, lines of code over 50 characters long may not display correctly. Please be aware of this if you include code samples in your question.
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
Ask Larry Wall
|
Log In/Create an Account
| Top
| 633 comments
(Spill at 50!) | Index Only
| Search Discussion
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
(1)
|
2
(1)
|
2
Rewind and replay (Score:4, Interesting)
It's clear that Perl is undergoing a huge revision now, but even in the midst of this, you have to refrain from straying too far from the existing userbase. What would you do if you didn't have to satisfy those people?
James Joyce (Score:3, Interesting)
No, this is not a Troll! It seems to me that Perl is as much about expressiveness as it is about creating software.
Perl vs J2EE (Score:5, Interesting)
Perl as a "scripting" or a "programming" language (Score:4, Interesting)
What do you think about how people are using Perl today? Are you satisfied that most people use it for simple tasks like log parsing? Would you like to see more advanced applications being built with Perl verses a compiled language?
Easy... (Score:4, Insightful)
A programming language is one that you do like.
Other linguas? (Score:5, Interesting)
What language do you use when you're not using Perl?
PDHoss
What 10 Q's would you ask yourself? (Score:5, Interesting)
Open source and money (Score:4, Interesting)
Thanks for Perl and the excellent Camel Book. I've been using Perl for 7 years now and am very grateful for having such a tool at my disposal.
Now for the question. Many times people ask the question "Does open source software pay?", and I am under the assumption that it has for you with the profits from the Camel Book and the Perl Resource Kit, etc. So has OSS been profitable for you?
PS, I miss the Hmm..... and other funny comments while applying patches :)
Line Length (Score:4, Funny)
Due to Slashdot's line length restrictions, lines of code over 50 characters long may not display correctly.
Isn't this something that can be fixed in Perl?
MjM
I only mod up...
Perl Beginners (Score:4, Interesting)
Now, for the question: Given this approach to learning Perl (just for a general working knowledge, maybe light usage,) is it really worth spending a lot of my time learning Perl now, or should I wait for the big Perl 6 revision?
Thanks
My Question (Score:3, Interesting)
What do you feel about the future of Perl? (Score:4, Interesting)
Do you see Perl moving towards ever being a greater language for "programming" as C++ is? Or is it's place pretty well defined and not moving?
In addition, what do you think about other languages and systems such as the
Structured programming and perl (Score:5, Interesting)
Thus I worry that perl has Python-envy. I've tried to use python several times but always go back to perl. The reason is my daily need for a parser dominates my choice of language and maintains my fluency, since I dont want to have to be fluent in both, perl becomes my language of choice for advanced tasks too, even though python might be better for strcutrued programming.
So my question is, is perl 6 making make perl a structued language like python? Would it be a good idea if perl did not develop any further for fear of becoming too complicated and thus disorganized. (witness the evolution of java from clean slate to giant mess with intricate redundant libraries half of which are deprecated).
How Object-Oriented is Perl (Score:4, Interesting)
In my experience having the programming language handle the complexities of the object type is just as good as having explicit types like int, float, string, etc. But others disagree. And, I'm sure that by creating packages that call other packages, inheritance can be simulated. Others would disagree with this as well.
Additionally, the people who criticize Perl's object-orientedness claim that Object-Oriented programming is "bolted on" to Perl, and therefore is somehow unnatural compared to a language like Java which is built to be object-oriented from the ground up.
How would you answer these critics, and how well does Perl in fact support Object-Oriented Programming, in your opinion?
Ask his opinion on OOP, not language details (Score:5, Insightful)
Most OO fans will say something like "X is the key to OOP". Yet X is always different. X has been "composition", "patterns", "inheritance", "abstraction", "reuse", "encapsulation", "modeling noun interaction", etc. etc. etc.
I would like to ask Larry what he *feels* about OOP rather than what Perl does with it. If you want to know what OOP features Perl has, then RTFM.
Please, don't waste questions on stuff that you can find by RTFM.
(oop.ismad.com)
Python and Ruby (Score:3, Interesting)
Why Perl? (Score:3, Interesting)
Poem (Score:3, Interesting)
What's your favorite Perl poem?
Cheers,
b&
P.S. Thanks for creating something as wonderful as Perl! b&
Languages in general (Score:4, Interesting)
I know that you are an amateur linguist, since you originally wanted to be a missionary, and I was just wondering what other languages that you know and how they influenced your design of perl. I believe that you mentioned in the Camel that Greek was one of the languages that you drew from, and I was just wondering about the others you used, and why you chose them.
Thanks!
5 Changes (Score:4, Interesting)
language comparison (Score:3, Interesting)
what next now? (Score:4, Interesting)
What will you *not* put into Perl 6? (Score:5, Interesting)
perl vs other languages (Score:5, Interesting)
What are your thoughts on these other scripting languages? What do you like about them, what do you dislike?
LOTR (Score:4, Funny)
Do you think the Peter Jackson movies are an acceptable alternative? Or do I have to read the books?
Perl Class? (Score:5, Interesting)
Why Perl? (Score:4, Interesting)
Larry, my question to you is why should I use PERL over Python for system administration? Why should I use PERL over PHP for web content? What do you think that PERL is best suited for?
Perl and .NET (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Perl and .NET (Score:4, Interesting)
From looking at perl 6, it really and honestly seems to me like the perl 6 team is trying to position itself as a competitor to
Is this an accurate assessment? Was perl 6 meant to be a "better" CLR, and are you people intending to market it as such? If so, do you think that perl 6 could seriously compete with the
Can it be honestly said that perl 6 is a threat to
The REAL question (Score:4, Funny)
Your campaign seems to have the momentum of a freight train. Why are you so popular?
Missionaries (Score:4, Interesting)
I hear that Mr. Wall once wanted to be a missionary translator but that a chronic health problem prevented him from going someplace foreign. I further hear that missionary translators use Perl a lot.
Has he heard any cool stories about how missionaries use Perl?
Would he ever want to do a short-term missionary gig?
How is his health nowadays?
Dear Larry: Are you crazy? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Dear Larry: Are you crazy? (Score:4, Informative)
This makes your pithy Issawi quote pointless. Larry's not pushing the Perl mule, he's giving riders a choice of a new, different mule that many of them will like better. If you feel pushed - again, keep writing Perl 5.
Larry's said several times that he's going to break everything that needs to be broken, mercilessly, in the design of Perl 6. Only those to whom this appeals need come along for the ride. I think your hysteria is misplaced.
From a project managers prospective ... (Score:4, Interesting)
PERL, XP, and test-driven development (Score:4, Interesting)
Considering that XP is a "high-discipline, low formality" methodology, how do you think XP and Perl fit together? How would you go about doing test-driven development in Perl? Is Perl a good language for XP?
-Peter
Issues left in Perl6? (Score:4, Interesting)
Are there any issues in Perl that will not be fixed in Perl6? By an "issue" I mean an aspect of the language that is being widely critized and is admittedly suboptimally implemented, like the current OO implementation.
Role of Religion? (Score:4, Interesting)
I remember reading at some point that you are a
Christian, and there have been suggestions that
some of your early missionary impulses (a desire
to do good, help others) are perhaps part of the
zeal you have put into Perl over the years.
Preferring a scientific view, I am not religious,
and have no desire to be. Perhaps there is a
God, but if there is, I think he/she has no
opposable thumbs; in other words, has no power to
change anything; reality is just playing out
according to the laws of physics (whatever those
are).
Please tell us how in the world a scientific or
at least technical mind can believe in God,
and what role religion has played in your
work on Perl.
Thanks for doing this interview, and thanks
for Perl!
Thanks Larry (Score:5, Interesting)
Like many others, I *love* Perl. I use it both professionally and personally. You've not only helped make my career, but also given me a very pleasent past-time. I was wondering what I can do to say thank-you? Can we give you money? Dontate something to someone, etc.?
When the new Programming Perl came out, I didn't really need anymoe (viva perldoc!), but wanted to make sure I was putting a few bucks in the pockets of those who made Perl great. What else can I do to say thanks?
-Bill
perl 6 niche (Score:5, Interesting)
Perl 6 on the other hand, changes this formula around; favoring a more general solution that potentially reduces performance (due to abstractions), and deviates substantially from the UNIX-family-syntax - Namely: c-ish-syntax ( colon, question mark, select, exception-handling, etc), awk/sedish reg-ex's, raw c-libray-wrappers, etc. It was these very similarities that made learning and accepting perl so trivial since learning CIS and UNIX administration was sufficient to master perl in 2 days.
My question is: does perl 6 have a niche in mind? Or is it spreading itself too thinly; competing more and more against Java/python/C# and thus losing it's identifiable niche?
Favourite Quote? (Score:5, Interesting)
How to get people to take Perl seriously (Score:4, Interesting)
The high-level technical people in my company don't take Perl seriously. They see it as some kind of super-Awk or an artifact of the early days of the web. Smart people know better, but we're not in charge.
What do you think it would take to get people to take Perl seriously as a programming language [again]? Is widespread use of Perl a goal of yours, or do you not care?
Faith (Score:4, Interesting)
Perl and Ruby (Score:5, Interesting)
At that time, there was no credible competition to Perl in any of the niches it basically created. These days, there is more competition than I can comfortably list. Indeed, if I were choosing a language like Perl today, I would be very, very tempted to choose Ruby instead, and I am not the only Perl programmer who feels this way. Interestingly, Perl6 is beginning to look and feel a lot more like Ruby. Are there indeed aspects of Ruby that you were deliberately trying to have in Perl6? Are there any aspects of Ruby you are especially wary of?
Multi-Line Comments (Score:4, Insightful)
Best language? (Score:3, Interesting)
faster loading times (Score:5, Interesting)
scripts. Both to speedup loading times and to byte-[en]code to program.
There is perlcc, which really isn't supported as a production tool and doesn't take
modules into account.
What do you think about technologies like Zend [zend.com]?
Is this really a issue for perl? or just a matter of time?
CM process preference when developing in a group (Score:3, Interesting)
or
change, test, commit, merge?
Are you a locker or a merger?
Do you USE Perl? (Score:4, Interesting)
Christianity (Score:5, Interesting)
As a fellow Christian (I'm sure that revelation won't get me mod points) I must say that I have really appreciated your 'State of the Onion' speeches over the years. Thanks for showing that Christians can think and that we don't all mindlessly follow a 'televangelist' religion.
Now for the question:
Why do you think that the geek/tech community is so anti-Christian and what can we do to help change their negative stereotypes of Christians? Why is it that so many in this community feel that being a 'Thinking Christian' is an oxymoron? People like Knuth and yourself show that Christians can think and make contributions in the technical world.
I tend to believe that the anti-Christian bias has some justification - meaning that Christians have often not displayed the grace which the Founder displayed and taught us to live in. What is it that Ghandi said when asked about Christianity? "Christianity I like, but it's those Christians that I'm not sure about". I also suspect that the anti-intellectualism of the pop-televangelists that is unfortunately so visible bears much of the blame (often when I come across one of those so-called Christian TV shows I think I'm looking at some kind of religious mutation and when I realize that these folks claim to believe the same things I do, I wince).
Garbage collection (Score:4, Interesting)
New Life Church (Score:3, Interesting)
What's it like for a celebrity to be a part of a community of Christians? Do you pass the collection plate and hand out programs before service starts like any other member, or do you get the celebrity treatment there, as well? I guess I'm asking how deep and intrusive into your life this celebrity stuff goes.
Keep it up, I appreciate it, and the world needs more Christian heros!
Aikido and Perl (Score:3, Interesting)
First, many thanks for Perl, which has saved me much anguish.
I know you're an aikidoka [yahoo.com], and after studying aikido for a year, I've come to see several similarities between aikido and Perl. For example, Perl gives you a nice feeling of blending with the problem instead of struggling directly against it, just as you blend with and redirect your attacker's energy rather than directly confronting it in aikido. Similarly, TMTOWTDI ("there's more than one way to do it") in aikido as well as in Perl (at least in my dojo, where understanding and reaching the goal is more important than slavishly copying the sensei).
My question is, did you consciously approach Perl with aikido in mind (or vice versa :-)? Or is it just that they both appeal to your personality in the same way?
Also, incidentally, what style of aikido do you practice?
Your successor (Score:3, Interesting)
The open source movement hasn't been around long enough for us to witness the transition to a new top dog in a worldwide, highly visible project, so we all have to wonder sometimes what will happen when you and Linus decide to pass the baton, and how it will be handled. Have you decided what has to happen for you to retire from the Perl project? Or do you think you'll be hanging in there at 75 and above, a John Lee Hooker of programming languages, until the day you flop over your keyboard? Do you think that you'll hand over the scepter to a successor at the pinnacle, or do you think Perl can be taken over by some kind of committee? Doesn't there have to be an individual who has final say on important and possibly controversial decisions? Do you think the developer community will accept a new leader on your sayso, or will there have to be some sort of election? And if you do consider choosing a successor, what will your criteria be?
BTW, I'm an atheist, but I hope you don't mind my saying God bless you for creating Perl.
Parrot as a good VM? (Score:3, Interesting)
He claimed the design of Parrot was fundamentally flawed and pointed to it's highly unusual design and the very high number of opcodes. I was wondering exactly what you're thoughts are on Parrot. It's claimed that it'll be a good target for any language, both static and dynamic, but are you really interested in pushing this? Could you see Parrot as worthy competition to .NET in the cross-language VM space? Is having a very large number of opcodes an advantage or a disadvantage?
Heidi (Score:5, Funny)
Thanks.
403 (Score:5, Funny)