On Friday, June 21, 2002, at 09:07 , Jeff 'japhy' Pinyan wrote:
[..]
First off my complements for the citations from the holy text.
Few general purpose perlers go in and read the header files.
> Perhaps this is because programmers are of the sci-fi/fantasy book-reading
> ilk, and LotR is perhaps the pinnacle of fantasy. I've read it three
> times, and it's probably my favorite book, although sci-fi books like
> "Stranger in a Strange Land" and "Ender's Game" are close rivals.
There is actually the less discussed part of this - excuse me while
I put on my 'poncy don' boring pedantic academic hat - and get a bit
dull here for a bit - namely the socio-cultural problems associated
with perl, it's place in the 'software industry' and the general
High Drama of "open source" v. "proprietary" software.
Most people are aware that Tolkien was a Linguist - so it is not
at all surprising that persons working on 'formalizing' a new
computer language would be at home with 'running jokes' based
upon common themes - Hence a part of why you still see kvetchings about
getting elvin and dwarvish into the unicode standards. There are
other absolutely fabulous Linguists one could have used in the
game, such as Chomsky - but it's a bit difficult to get good
running comedy out of say 'manufacturing consent' and other
popular and public writings of Chomsky not directly in the field
of Linguistics. So while Technically we owe more to Chomsky for
things like transformational grammar - it's hard to compensate
the whole 'left brain/right brain' game with witicisms based upon
Chomsky's Extra-Curricular Writings. Unlike with Tolkien's work,
that provide whole 'name spaces' for 'good and evil'.
{ technically, one really should NOT do some of the folly of
our youth - since while most of us KNOW what
call Gandalf
would supposedly mean - namely that this is an exception
handler - since the hobbits are in trouble - the code is not
really maintainable 'encrypted' as it is in the naming conventions
of LotR ... While on the other hand there are social issues with
hostname conventions based upon LotR - as management may some day
notice that you have put them all under control of a Server named
Sauron - and all of their machines are named after trolls....}
That the 'computer club' has been struggling itself with whether
or not we are merely a 'psychotic social disease' or a 'profession'
goes all the way back to the transitioning into 'personal computing'
out of the hey days of 'big iron' - owned by major corporations and
defense contractors - has also been a part of the underlying
cultural mythology that enobles and empowers the perl community.
hence it is not at all surprising to find things like:
"...one runtime to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them."
--unattributable description of microsoft .net
where the re-contextualizing itself says all that we need to say.
No heavy ranting, no Massive 'intellectual' "encryption schema",
just a sufficiency of art, and it is said.
We could get ourselves lost in the mazes of 'java' v. 'python'
v. visual basic v. .... Or we can as we do, work on the best
available set of tools to interoperate across multiple platforms,
and not merely all of a given vendors releases. Since we are still
working on the basic core premise:
What really IS in the best interest of the Community?
But that also works against us at times - since there are people
who are absolutely scared by the idea that the code is NOT 'formal',
since they have seen so many 'bad piece of perl' - since there is
no real PerlPolice to crack down and impose 'good order and discipline'.
{ we have the whole nms section at source forge - as the community
response - since we have neither the technology, nor I think, the
ethical basis, for 'shutting down the evil doers'. }
Perl - therefore - coming as it does out of Larry Walls original
work with the 'military-industrial-InfoTainment' Complex - that
was where the 'internet' had been Prior to it going 'commercial'
has a lot of 'old school BSD types' - most of whom are the computational
Heirs to the SF 'diggers' - finds its roots in the dialectical tensions
of being the spawn of that evil 'darpaNet' world while at the same time
carrying with it all the struggle that essentially most of the geeks
are variations on Hobbits we all know and love.
Unlike so many of the perlers - I have not read any of the classic
tomes - I have merely been willing to listen to those who have - and
come wandering down the path giggling at the absurd dialectics.
Perl STILL can't resolve if it really should be more OO - or should
we merely implement that part more effectively - to be more supportive
of that part of the Shire that has that as it's bend???
So as long as we remain a place where we are seriously trying to deal
both with complex coding problems - but also in the context of complex
social issues - we will keep lacing our work with that dialectical
tension - making our livings as best we can, adding in where we can,
and always facing the threat that we may give in to the 'dark side'
and forget about how we got here.
We have been compelled to include more and more 'security features'
and 'security standards' - because, well - the only other option
would be that we will lose the shire all together. But we do not
want to get trapped in that maze either - so we keep trying to
refocus that side as
the quest for excellence
rather than securityFacism - since we would prefer to keep the
old maxim:
We would prefer NOT to have to carry guns in our living room.
Just to keep you from coming through the door and making a mess
of all the code that we have written.... Most folks forget the
'-m' option to perldoc - to let them peruse the source code of
this or that Module - for a better eye on how better to do what
it is that is mostly like the Foo::BAR module...
This is possible in part because we have the luxury in all of this, as
we are not making our money selling you new and improved upgrades to
the source code base that randomly has to change - to oblige you to buy
a new 'upgrade' - rather we try to keep compatability and
consistency through the system - so that people can use the language
to make a living.
We keep extending perl into strange places that were never 'intended'
in the original 1st edition release - but that really is not at all
unlike the whole side effect of Tolkien's selling the first edition
for a mere thousand quid - and having it just rocket off - impacting
not merely the 'story telling' world of 'literature' - putting him
at odds with his own professional peers - but also firing the imagination
of so many to play outside the box.....
But enough of the unresolved socio-cultural context, the progression
of semi-formalizable language, our cultural roots in the dialectical
tensions between the real and the imaginary - the art of the shaman
seeking to pass along the ZeitGeist and the Heilegischt - not merely
in the telling of the tales, but in the living of the ways.
Let us refocus again on that quest for excellence - passing along
what we know to those who wish to learn - and learning from those
willing to teach. For in this one finds the full art of Perl....
ciao
drieux
---
--
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
