It's core to the language; very common usage. Context overloading is very core to the language. I don't know what kind of programming you could do that wouldn't involved references used in this way.
If you want to talk about the rough edges, I can do that. I actually know and use Perl. But when people who clearly have not invested much time with the language try to criticize it's always idiotic. I mean, let's talk about the 'each' operator or the archaic format stuff. The basic syntax of the language is fine; you just don't know it.
As I wrote in another place, the main problem with Perl is the trolls, like Godalus seems to be.
All that garbage has really lessened any interest in Python and Ruby for me. I really don't want to join communities which have so many members doing so large amounts of hype, language wars and trolling.
All that garbage has really lessened any interest in Python and Ruby for me. I really don't want to join communities which have so many members doing so large amounts of hype, language wars and trolling.
So true.
Perl people are not immune to this, though; I have seen a lot of snipes at Haskell and Common Lisp in various Perl forums. People see a threat to their way of life, and do everything possible to maintain the status quo.
(The "complaints" are always about the same sorts of things, too. Perl sucks because it has sigils, Haskell sucks because I don't know what a functor is, and Common Lisp sucks because you can't get into the first element of a list and drive it. These are rarely problems with the languages, and more typically problems with the commenter.)
It is funny, because Perl has been around longer than Python and Ruby, and Common Lisp (in some form) has been around longer than Perl. If the designers of Python and Ruby had done their job, there wouldn't even need to be a debate, we would all be using whichever one was newest.
It's core to the language; very common usage. Context overloading is very core to the language. I don't know what kind of programming you could do that wouldn't involved references used in this way.
If you want to talk about the rough edges, I can do that. I actually know and use Perl. But when people who clearly have not invested much time with the language try to criticize it's always idiotic. I mean, let's talk about the 'each' operator or the archaic format stuff. The basic syntax of the language is fine; you just don't know it.