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About this quote

What does it mean?
Comparing Perl to a 'real' language leads to dissatisfaction.
In plain terms
Don't compare Perl to a so language or you'll be unhappy.
What can you take from it?
Evaluate languages by their own merits rather than against a standard.

Where it applies

  • learning new languages
  • tool selection

Putting it to work

  • set realistic expectations
  • focus on task fit

Questions to consider

  • What criteria should guide language selection?
  • When is comparison helpful?

Another view

Some comparisons can highlight strengths and weaknesses useful for choice.

More from Larry Wall

  1. > (It's sorta like sed, but not. It's sorta like awk, but not. etc.) Guilty as charged. Perl is happily ugly, and happily derivative.

    Permalink to quote #51

  2. Lispers are among the best grads of the Sweep-It-Under-Someone-Else's-Carpet School of Simulated Simplicity. [Was that sufficiently incendiary? :-)]

    Permalink to quote #53

  3. If you want to see useful Perl examples, we can certainly arrange to have comp.lang.misc flooded with them, but I don't think that would help the advance of ci…

    Permalink to quote #50

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