home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
ftp.cs.arizona.edu
/
ftp.cs.arizona.edu.tar
/
ftp.cs.arizona.edu
/
icon
/
newsgrp
/
group00b.txt
/
000146_icon-group-sender_Tue Nov 7 08:12:23 2000.msg
< prev
next >
Wrap
Internet Message Format
|
2001-01-03
|
2KB
Return-Path: <icon-group-sender>
Received: (from root@localhost)
by baskerville.CS.Arizona.EDU (8.11.1/8.11.1) id eA7FBes03987
for icon-group-addresses; Tue, 7 Nov 2000 08:11:40 -0700 (MST)
Message-Id: <200011071511.eA7FBes03987@baskerville.CS.Arizona.EDU>
Date: Mon, 06 Nov 2000 23:17:22 -0600
From: gep2@terabites.com
Subject: Why Perl?
To: icon-group@cs.arizona.edu
Errors-To: icon-group-errors@cs.arizona.edu
Status: RO
Content-Length: 1698
> I have used Icon for over a decade. Recently, I went through the Perl
tutorial. For the most part, I am amazed that Perl has become the dominant
language for text processing.
Absolutely!
I admit to using SNOBOL4/SPITBOL in preference to Icon (just find it easier!)
but I generally explain to my colleagues that "Perl isn't a poor man's SNOBOL...
it's a destitute-man-living-in-a-cardboard-box-in-a-vacant-lot-man's SNOBOL.
:-)
> About the only area where Perl could be considered to Icon is in report
generation, and even this advantage could be obtained in Icon with the
appropriate library.
Sure!
The other area, perhaps, is the built-in features to support various
Internet-type functions. Again, nothing that a good library wouldn't fix.
And of course, 32-bit compiled SPITBOL will run rings around Perl, for
applications where the speed is important.
> Why, then, has Perl become so popular while Icon remains (relatively) obscure?
I think a lot of it is simply ignorance that there's something better. After a
while these 'bad solutions' sort of take on a momentum and a life of their own,
and it's like pulling teeth to get rid of them.
Part of the problem is that a lot of teachers at the University level teach (and
mention) Perl and not Icon or S*BOL, with the result that people just assume
that Perl is 'the' solution to use for such things.
<---- End Forwarded Message ---->
Gordon Peterson
http://personal.terabites.com/
Support the Anti-SPAM Amendment! Join at http://www.cauce.org/
12/19/98: the day the Conservatives demonstrated their scorn for their
fraudulent sham of representative government. Voters, remember it!