hi, i was interested if perl is still relevant in this day and age. Perl has been on the decline for a very long time now. Perl 6 (now named 'raku) not being backwards compatible with perl 5 code made the already small perl community even smaller by splitting it in half. A good example is lisp with it’s thousands of different dialects.

Is it still worth using or is it bound to legacy software forever? Like cobol.

  • glad_cat@lemmy.sdf.org
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    1 year ago

    For me, Python replaced Perl 15 years ago. I know Perl is a great language, but it’s too “write-only.” Python replaced both BASIC and Perl at the same time, even with the problems of migration from v2 to v3. Python can also do scripts to replace Bash and PowerShell. I don’t see myself learning Perl now, it would be a waste of time.

    Perl was revolutionary at the time with CGI and regexes, but it’s not needed anymore.

    • El Barto@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I wish python was not indentation aware. It has discouraged me from learning it.

      Edit: downvoted by fanbois. Look, I’m not married to my tools.

      • Muffi@programming.dev
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        1 year ago

        Even if you’re writing JavaScript, you should be using proper indentation. What an odd thing to keep you from learning it.

        • El Barto@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Sometimes I want to write a quick oneliner or a quick algorithm to test things out. Or not worry about indentation when trying a solution I might discard in five minutes.

          With Python, I don’t have that choice.

            • El Barto@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Single line ID? What do you mean?

              Edit: I got it now.

              So I can place multiple for loops and conditional statements in one single line in Python?

              • tsz@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                List comprehension can actually do that, yes. This is one of the scripting aspects of python I use most commonly, and is probably one of its best-known features for creating “one liners”.

                • El Barto@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  I read about it since I was curious. It seems like you have to craft your code in a certain way for it to be a one-liner. Whereas with many other languages, you don’t need to do such a thing. You just put everything in one line and off you go.

                  Having said that, from a challenge-seeking perspective, writing python oneliners sound fun (I really mean this.)

                  • tsz@lemmy.world
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                    1 year ago

                    Absolutely bizarrely incorrect take on like everything you’ve stated as though it were fact. This is some classic reddit hole-digging and I’m loving it.

        • dukk@programming.dev
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          1 year ago

          Things get messy though, when you have to break the rules of indentation once in a while or when you have “improper “ indentation. Whitespace is a stupidly messy thing. Indentation should be a style guide, not part of the language semantics.

      • glad_cat@lemmy.sdf.org
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        1 year ago

        It has never been an issue for me in 20 years. If you move code, you cut a whole paragraph, paste, and indent appropriately.

        • El Barto@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          If I move code in non-python code, I cut a whole paragraph, paste, and I’m done if that’s all I wanted to do.

          • glad_cat@lemmy.sdf.org
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            1 year ago

            Your code won’t be indented properly, same problem as Python unless you have a formatting tool in your setup.

            • El Barto@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              It won’t matter. It will still compile correctly every time, as opposed to python, and that’s my point. Choice. Choice is the key here.

                • El Barto@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  I know Python is interpreted, but regardless, my point still stands. Just replace compile with run correctly.

      • treadful@lemmy.zip
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        1 year ago

        I wish python was not indentation aware. It has discouraged me from learning it.

        lol, then you just don’t like Python. You can’t disassociate the two things.

            • El Barto@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Correct. I don’t think we’re disagreeing. The language has one deal-breaker to me and that’s all I need to know.

              That’s like saying “you won’t be friends with Bob because he’s likes to go to smoking-friendly places all the time and you don’t? BUT YOU DON’T KNOW THE GUY!!!”