Hi all--
Please add my 32 years of programming experience to the perl is a
high level language side. Good thing "will" didn't suggest that some
python experience would be adequate for entrance to the class!
I don't think that it will be profitable for you to argue with a
professor on this subject. Look for an ally on the faculty--a perl
guy, linux guy, unix guy. Other students may be able to help
identify him(or her). Then ask him to help you understand how your
perl experience is not relevant and what to do about it. With any
luck he'll be righteously indignant and intervene on your behalf.
I'm not sure it will be worthwhile taking a course from this weenie
anyway, so maybe take something else this semester and try again
next.
good luck and have fun
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: Jon Acierto <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: August 18, 2001 10:30 AM
Subject: Re: PERL IS NOT A HIGH LEVEL LANGUAGE
Jon and List:
Sometimes in life it is necessary to fight back, not because it is a
good exercise, but rather to try to correct injustices and misguided
minds. In this particular case Jon has been deprived of access to an
employment opportunity, just because there is an uninformed
individual, in a position with decision_making power, with an
unjustified bias against a beautifully efficient programming
technology such as Perl and, as most of our people think, the bias is
most probably grounded in hard_rock ignorance.
It is Ok to express our disgust in this case by talking among
ourselves and fuming because of the injustice against one of our
peers, and against the truth. However, it is not OK to stop at that
point. I believe that some civilized reaction is needed, not only to
try to correct an abuse, but also to start being noticed and begin
spreading some well deserved respect for the PERL technology. What I
am suggesting is doing a writing campaign similar to what is done
when Senators and Representatives need to be convinced of something,
for them to take a stand for or against that something.
Instead of only tring to comfort one another among ourselves, with
all sorts of valid arguments as we have been doing so far, let us
write separate, individual e-mails, with our own e-mail addresses, to
the Admissions Counselor at U.W. (Jon can probably find out the
e-mail address and let us know it) to make him notice that there are
many Perl experts who disagree with the opinion expressed by the
Reviewer, and inviting such person to a technical discussion with
respect to the high level qualities of Perl. The messages would have
to be corteous, polite, to the point, and clear on their intent. I
would suggest something like this: (even if everyone chose the same
pattern, it still would be OK):
Dear Counselor:
I have been informed that my friend and colleague Jon Acierto has
been denied consideration for a programming position at U.W. on the
basis that "he only has 2 years of experience with the Perl language"
and not in other computer programming languages. The C++
Applications Reviewer has also expressed the opinion that Jon's
experience is not even comparable to someone with a knowledge of
COBOL!!.
As a knowledgeable and experienced programmer of Perl and other
languages such as ............I want to not only disagree with the
Reviewer's opinion, but I also want to call your attention to the
injustice of denying a qualified individual an opportunity, on the
basis of unjustified opinions of someone who evidently does not have
an adequate knowledge of the Perl language. The opinion expressed by
your reviewer that "PERL IS NOT A HIGH LEVEL LANGUAGE" is completely
unfounded because of the following:
.....................................................................
.....................................................................
..........................
.....................(your arguments in favor of
Perl)................................................................
....................................
.....................................................................
.....................................................................
...........................
Furthermore, Mr. Counselor, I am hereby requesting that you provide
me in your answer to this message the name and e-mail address of the
Reviewer, since it is my intention to invite that person to a
friendly discussion about the merits of the Perl programming
language, with the intention of trying to convince him/her of the
wrongfulness of his/her assumptions. Your response with the
requested information will be greatly appreciated.
Respectfully Submitted
Your Full Name
Your E-Mail Adress
Let us not get just get mad. Let us get even in a civilized way.
I believe action is needed in this case. Who knows, they may even
reconsider Jon for the position.
Any takers?
Keep well
Fred A. Romani
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
----- Original Message -----
From: Jon Acierto
Sent: Friday, August 17, 2001 9:48 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: PERL IS NOT A HIGH LEVEL LANGUAGE
Hello Guys It's me again,
After getting all the feedback from this maillist on my "High Level"
question AND going to an online dictionary and finding out that Perl
Does
fit the definition of a high level language, I get this from the
Admissions
Councellor at the U.W. ext.:
Jon, thank you for your inquiry.
I sent your description of your programming background to the C++
application reviewer and received this input:
"i have to agree with will's assessment. perl is not a high level
language. it amounts to a scripting language. simply having 2 years
of
working with perl says nothing about whether he has worked on more
complex
problems or has developed the programming skills necessary to
understand
and solve such problems from ground up. in addition, does he have -
in any
language - the understanding of more advanced data structures...with
2
years of serious cobol for example should bring familiarity with
files,
records, and other such data types."
Jon, if you have the prerequisite background as described above, then
you
will need to document and support it in your C++ application.
Otherwise,
you will need to decide how you want to expand your programming
experience.
In the UWEO program offerings, the C program would help you do this.
Can someone please help me explain to these people that writing Perl
for 2
years says about as much of my ability to program and understand
"advanced
data structures" and having worked on "more complex problems" as
spending
those 2 years with C. Am I wrong? I know that if I describe to them
the
OOP in Perl that I've done as well as all the work I've done with
files and
records with data extraction (binary and ascii) that they would
understand. But is it just me or do these people not know anything
about Perl?
Jonathan Acierto
Perl Programmer
Ocentrix Inc.
206.691.7603
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
A famous linguist once said:
"There is no language wherein a double
positive can form a negative."
YEAH, RIGHT
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