Re: Perl's Glory Days Are Behind It, But It Isn't Going Anywhere

Hi Johan,

On Thu, 31 Jan 2013 09:10:47 +0100
Johan Vromans <[email protected]> wrote:

> http://developers.slashdot.org/story/13/01/29/0235220/perls-glory-days-ar=
e-behind-it-but-it-isnt-going-anywhere
>=20
> We know we suck at marketing, but is there anything we are going to do
> about it?
>=20

I now have something more to add. Recently I've done some small (but import=
ant)
tweaks to http://perl-begin.org/ to make the intent of it clearer, and to a=
void
some what I perceived as pointless marketing-speak. People should now be ab=
le to
use it to learn Perl immediately and effectively, without all the advocacy
speak.

As I noted on #perl , I suspect that part of the reason most people still p=
refer
jQuery ( http://jquery.com/ - the =E2=80=9Cwrite less, do more=E2=80=9D JS =
library) instead of
Angular JS ( http://angularjs.org/ - the =E2=80=9CSuperheroic JavaScript MVW
Framework=E2=80=9D) is because jQuery=E2=80=99s motto tells you why you wou=
ld want to use it,
while Angular JS uses hyperbolic adjectives (=E2=80=9CSuperheroic=E2=80=9D =
- bleh).
As Mark Twain notes in
http://palc.sd40.bc.ca/palc/Archive/writingtips/twainadjectives.htm :

<<<<<
When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don't mean utterly, but kill mo=
st
of them=E2=80=94then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when they are c=
lose
together. They give strength when they are wide apart. An adjective habit, =
or a
wordy, diffuse, flowery habit, once fastened upon a person, is as hard to g=
et
rid of as any other vice
>>>>>

I really liked the old http://www.cpan.org/ motto of =E2=80=9Cstop reinvent=
ing wheels -
start building spaceships=E2=80=9D because it uses a good analogy from some=
thing more
tangible than software, for the philosophy behind CPAN. Many people now feel
that Perl 5 and perl 5 are almost useless without the ability to use extern=
al
CPAN modules, and we at #perl on Freenode have been suffering a lot of heat
from people who want to use Perl without it. That put aside, I think that
making some CPAN distributions and packages have less dependencies, faster =
to
load (Moo instead of Moose, etc.), and less intimidating will be a good thi=
ng.
One of the criticisms I heard about the Ruby and Ruby gems culture is that
=E2=80=9Ceverything is a framework=E2=80=9D and that =E2=80=9Ca simple scri=
pt to move files. 100 MB of
RAM=E2=80=9D.

In any case, I suggest we promote Perl simply by hacking: improving existing
CPAN distributions and other applications, creating new ones that we lack (=
like
CMSes, etc.), and not worry too much about whether or not Perl is the
hippest/most-in-vogue/coolest/"OMG-Ponies!!!"/etc. language, because hip and
fashions come and go (HTML -> Dynamic HTML -> Web 2.0 -> HTML 5 anyone?). A=
 lot
of people have been criticising languages like C and C++ all the time with =
all
sorts of criticisms, but both are popular among open-source developers, and
still used in production a lot[C++] and often are the best choice. Perl has=
 some
advantages over Ruby or Python or JavaScript or CoffeeScript or whatever, e=
ven
in the core language (to say nothing about CPAN), and I find that Ruby or
Python's implicit scoping cause too many problems and are unpredictable, wh=
ich
is why I normally still prefer using Perl 5.

So stop worrying, because eventually anti-something hype or propaganda is
getting old, and people use common sense and logic to criticise it, and they
eventually don't buy it even if the media keeps parroting the same somethin=
g.
Like we say in Hebrew, =E2=80=9Cthe lie does not have legs=E2=80=9D. Even i=
f the television or
mainstream media is broadcasting non-stop propaganda, most of the people who
matter will rather buy into stuff they see on the Internet, even if it seems
completely irrelevant or even silly such as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lo=
lcat
or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gangnam_Style or whatever.=20

Maybe I'm too na=C3=AFve and optimistic (and have a positive view of life, =
humans,
and the world), but I think that =E2=80=9Ctruth=E2=80=9D will eventually pr=
evail, only that we
must constantly seek better and more up-to-date =E2=80=9Ctruth=E2=80=9Ds, b=
ecause =E2=80=9Cexistence
exists=E2=80=9D and is dynamic and there will never be a =E2=80=9CTheory of=
 Everything=E2=80=9D or the
=E2=80=9COmega=E2=80=9D of human enlightenment. We must constantly seek it.=
 I just hope that
humanity or our planet does not perish in this course.

[ Sorry for the flow of consciousness towards the end. ]

Regards,

	Shlomi Fish

{{{
[C++] - I personally feel that C++ gives me too much rope to hang myself, s=
o in
order to save me from myself, I prefer sticking to C, but it seems to work =
fine
in projects such as Qt, KDE, or web browsers or whatever, where programmers=
 are
more clueful than I am, at least in this respect.
}}}

--=20
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Shlomi Fish       http://www.shlomifish.org/
Perl Humour - http://perl-begin.org/humour/

The Spanish Inquisition does not expect Chuck Norris.

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