On Mon, Aug 12, 2019 at 1:42 PM Richard Hainsworth <rnhainswo...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > The decision on perl 5 vs perl 6 naming is more revolutionary but it > > IS hurting > > Perl. I love Perl but it has an image problem. > True. Would a name change now have much effect? > > If Perl didn't have an image problem, > > Python never would have become so popular. > Mmmm. ???? That is a very strong assertion and diminishes Python and its > developers. It's the sort of statement that can't easily be tested. More > a belief.
Not really. If Perl had worked harder to stay in the public eye in a good way (rather than being viewed as dieing), there wouldn't have been a perceived need for Python. Python is fundamentally flawed (significant whitespace was stressed in multiple classes in grad school as something to NEVER do when designing a language (and an older one that I can no longer remember was used as the example)). > > Perl used to be THE scripting > > language. > True. And C was THE programming language. Life moves on. And in circles. > Fashions come and go, and what was fashionable can again be so. The big difference being that C is a primitive (as in very low-level) language that is great for some things but requires far more work than "modern" languages for a lot of things. If you don't need the speed, there's little reason to use C these days. Perl, on the other hand, can do anything Python can (except stackless) and, generally, just as easily.
