Perl still relevant in 2023/24?

It0m@lemmy.ml to Technology@lemmy.world – 65 points –

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.

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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.

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.

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

I write code, indentation is something that the editor just does automatically. If I want to change indent settings I just mark the complete buffer, press tab, and magic happens.

I've been using python for various stuff for a few years now as well, and the indent thing still annoys me.

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.

If it is actually a single line ID argue that you do.

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?

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".

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.)

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.

You brought me to the middle of the road in an interesting discussion about oneliners and you shove me back to the start. Way to go, buddy.

"Hurr durr u wrong u redditor!!"

Instead of feeling offended, why don't you continue the conversation? Give me some proof that the stuff I read os wrong. Give me some examples, I'm curious!

I'm no offended. It's just weird listening to someone make shut up about something they clearly have no experience with outside of memes, while talking like it's complete fact. It's a strange thing to do.

At this point you're making a lot of assumptions, and you haven't address the main point. Keep going down that red herring. I did a bit of research, I thought my sources were legit. But oh no... instead of continuing a productive discussion, you had to go down the "u suck, meme boy."

I was curious about python, with my reserves, and you're not really helping. I hope you're not a troll; just a fanatic, which is almost as useless as a troll.

I'll give you one last chance. Otherwise, I'll conclude that the python community on lemmy is not that welcoming.

I think it's an autocorrect typo. Should be: If it is actually a single line, I'd argue that you do.

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.

No, it really is horrible. I’m an old timer who learned on FORTRAN and other languages that were still suffering from the punchcard era. Making logic based on character positioning, and adding unnecessary restriction, is just so frustrating and tedious. We got away from such constraints by the 1990’s. Let’s not go back.

Sure enough, my kid’s Comp Sci teacher tried to use Python because he read how easy it is to use, but no one succeeded because of the formatting. No one succeeded except my kid, who also became a rock star by helping kids reformat. Anyhow, back when computers were primitive and limited, such restrictions were understandable. They’re not anymore.

Currently I’m a fan of Groovy. All the capability of Java without silly requirements like semi-colons. All the simplicity of Python without silly formatting restrictions

If that's your only reason, I'd encourage to try it anyway. Logical indentation is initially weird but it can be overcome very fast.

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

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.

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

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.

Python isn't (generally) compiled. Have you used python before?

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

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.

Yup, I don't like it because of it.

You flat out haven't used it.

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!!!!!"