Check this out: http://hyperpolyglot.org/scripting.
It's a side-by-side comparison of PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby. I'm not sure why, but it seems sort of cool.
Things like "offside rule" to describe indentation in Python are confusing at first. The "regions which define local scope" section on Python makes precious …
more ...Check out Binstock's January 15th column in Software Development Times, Integration Watch: The End of PERL?
Very compelling case, generally free of the kind of subjective rants that often characterize analysis of PERL's viability. I tell people to drop PERL all the time, but I don't often have as clear …
more ...First, I've had some opinions on this "one language" ideal After PERL what?. We have a variety of languages for a good reason: the languages express different kinds of things. Shell command languages really have little to do with markup languages, database manipulation languages or "general-purpose" programming languages.
One of …
more ...In my case, the opacity of Perl actually wasn't entirely my opinion. I was contacted by folks that were struggling with Perl. In one case, they specifically lifted up the opacity problem. "If my partner gets hit by the bus, I can't maintain these web sites."
In the other case …
more ...Perl's old. And Perl is without shame about adopting every syntax gimmick on earth. Consequently, Perl has accreted enough features that Perl programs are hard to read, making them impossible to maintain. More thoughts on this opacity problem in Gadgetopia http://www.gadgetopia.com/post/1919 and Freshmeat …