Perl Turns 25 263
Several readers sent word that the Perl programming language turned 25 today. In his commemorative post at the Perl Foundation's website, mdk wrote,
"So what does the future hold for Perl? Well I don't have a crystal ball but I cannot see the language fading from usage in the next quarter century, the truth of the matter is that even though there are languages that can do some of the things that Perl does, some of them do some things better, others do things Perl wasn't designed for, there is no language that has been designed to do the things that Perl is very good at doing. No language in the current scripting languages seems to have the flexibility, maturity and extensibility of Perl. The main power of Perl has always been its ability to quickly adapt, and be adapted, to suit purposes. ... The greatest challenges we will face for Perl is a shifting end-user base that will become more reliant on devices that are feature focused but crippled in application choice, the rise in mobile devices will continue and Perl will need to evolve to work with that. A better challenge for us to face would be the integration with electronically aware, and connected devices and systems, the apocryphal internet of things, in this Perl could be a powerful tool. I also believe that the more we see a divergence of language uses in the other scripting languages the more they will face issues in their core designs, issues that Perl avoids due to its malleable nature, what some believe is the crippling factor for Perl is likely to be its saving grace as it has the power and flexibility to cope with the shifting goalposts of an increasingly technologically reliant world."
Recent convert (Score:5, Interesting)
I used it. Once. (Score:5, Interesting)
I wrote an app in Perl once. It was the only language that I could get to reliably connect to MSSQL from Linux.
It was fun to write, but I go back and look at the code now and it looks like Greek.
On the upside it's been running for over 5 years and having no problems at all.
Re:Recent convert (Score:5, Interesting)
Why perl? (Score:5, Interesting)
What can perl do that newer languages such as python and ruby can't do, and do more readably/maintainably?
I understand about path dependence and sunk costs, which is why we still have COBOL, I'm asking about language features that are unique to perl.
Re:Why perl? (Score:5, Interesting)
How much of readability is the fault of the language vs the developer? Cut-n-paste coding is the bane of any language.
As a perl programmer, I sometimes ask, what can python or ruby do that perl can't?
MVC web framework like Rails or Django? Catalyst, Mojolicious, etc. PSGI has taken a lot of pain out of deployment of apps.
Good, modern object system? Moose.
GUI stuff? There's Wx and Qt interfaces.
OK, embedding C looks much easier in python, but I've never needed that.
If all the CPAN stuff would just work with other languages, I'd be more willing to switch. Javascript seems to be where all the web stuff is heading anyway.
Re:Why perl? (Score:4, Interesting)
Surprisingly, embedding C++ in Perl is easier than embedding C. Of course, that's just my opinion, there aren't a lot of docs on the C++ topic, and I am one of the few Perl programmers who actually enjoy C++.
The Parrot VM http://www.parrot.org/ [parrot.org] is supposed to be for dynamic languages what the CLR and JVM are for Microsoft and Java respectively. If it ever makes it to prime time, then you could use your CPAN module with Ruby, or vice-versa.
Re:I used it. Once. (Score:3, Interesting)
Sounds like Perl. Powerful, accessible to a complete beginner, reliable, and practically unmodifiable once written.
Re:Recent convert (Score:3, Interesting)