Re: "Art Of Unix Programming" on Perl

Dan Sugalski <[email protected]>:
> Yes, but you see, we're not generating code. All the rest of the stuff is 
> irrelevant, and Real Hackers don't need to design--it's all self-evident. 
> Besides, you only need to design if you're building one of those Cathedral 
> thingies, and we all know how bad those are. (If you need to reach higher, 
> the correct method is, of course, to add another layer of tents on top of 
> the previous one)

The obvious and cutting rejoinder for me to make would be:

	"Hey. If I believed this, I'd still be writing Perl."

But that's a cheap shot, and Larry Wall and I are homies, and I don't
really believe it anyway (well, not *much*...).  So instead I'll ask
you gentlemen to enlighten me.  Larry actually invited me to join the
Perl6 design list (if only as the doomed futile token voice for LISPy
minimalism) and I tried to, but there was some kind of ugly technical
snafu with Skud's listserv and I couldn't get signed on.

What *is* going on over there, anyway?  It is unfortunately true that
the effort looks stalled from the outside.  I'd be happy to revise that
opinion if there are whitepapers or design notes or a Wiki or something
I could look at. 

Anyway, worry not, I don't expect the book to complete for a year.  You
have plenty of time to change my mind.  And I still wouldn't mind 
contributing to the design.

(Cripes.  I only dissed Perl mildly.  I gave Java a much
rougher time and basically consigned Tcl to an early grave -- but no
flamage from *those* guys...)
--
		<a href="http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/">Eric S. Raymond</a>

The right of self-defense is the first law of nature: in most
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destruction." 
	-- Henry St. George Tucker (in Blackstone's Commentaries)