borlanco

Amazing, a Nobel Prize in Engineering!. Strange times indeed.

Please, please, please remember to install some fire suppression!

Thank you, Larry!

We all see the writer in you, wanting to get out!

It's nice to be able to convey your feelings to your audience through writing, but great writers go further.

The world needs great writers, because they are travel guides. They guide us to visit places we couldn't reach alone. Worthwhile places that would go unvisited and unknown without our guides.

That's why "Kitchen Confidential" is such an amazing book. It's a travelogue.

When Gay Talese wrote "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold", he didn't write a profile of Frank. He was inviting us to go see Frank with him, to sign up to the great adventure of finding out who Frank really was.

If you would like to be one of our guides, I thank you.

Study the book "On Writing", by Stephen King, and begin inviting us to your travels!

The "creative" part is all decisions to be made before coding: architecture, design, modularization, algorithms, APIs, etc.

If I am in charge of those decisions, I can use Perl to build a prototype, to validate the solution I am creating.

But if I don't decide anything, my job is to code whatever. No chance for me to be creative.

Most quirks of Perl are there to make the construction of prototypes easier and faster.

There are two types of programming, and each has its own definition of "relevant": new programming, with its preference for ready-made components to reduce complexity, and old-time creative programming, which usually was about the creation of new things.

The "creation" part is key. Perl is a tool for "easy creation", for creators that want to be more productive. This is what Larry Wall wanted.

This is why Perl is good for prototyping. You "create" the prototype, and then you "translate" it to something else.

Perl is quite relevant for me, but I say this as a creator.

I'm not against limits in programming languages. They help to reduce the complexity that have to be managed.

Limited languages are suitable for those that are willing to manage only so much. That's why Java has no "goto".

But Perl does offer "goto". Why? Because Larry Wall built Perl for himself, and he wanted the most powerful tool that he could conceive. That's exactly what Perl is.

And I accept that, and I really want that. Every time I mess up with Perl, I don't blame my tool. I just laugh out loud and exclaim: "Thanks, Larry, for letting me know another way to not be up to my job".

Perl is the magic wand. If you don't want to be a magician, you don't need it.

But if you want to be a magician, you'll be thrilled to know Perl has three forms of "goto", not just one. This is what the textbook says about the third one: "The goto &NAME form is highly magical and sufficiently removed from the ordinary goto to exempt its users from the opprobium to which goto users are customarily subjected".

The case for Perl is just that it has no limits. You will never run out of tool if you go with Perl. That is what, I believe, makes the investment worthwhile.

Why Perl gets such a bad rap, then? I'll tell you.

I've used Perl for almost 30 years now, and I've never found any limits in the tool. This means every limit I found was _mine_. Many programmers feel bad when they find their own limits, but it doesn't have to be the case.

You should be OK with finding your own limits, and be willing to overcome them, and strive to become a Perl power user, just like the founder, Larry Wall.

If you choose this, to grow and improve and be better, and better, and better, then Perl is the best option.

It's up to you.

I am glad I was able to help you.

If you like "The Secrets of Consulting", the next one for you should be "Exploring requirements: quality before design", by Gause & Weinberg. What an eye opener it was for me!

Quite difficult to be like you. In any case, much obliged to you, sir!