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000148_icon-group-sender_Tue Nov 7 08:13:06 2000.msg
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Return-Path: <icon-group-sender>
Received: (from root@localhost)
by baskerville.CS.Arizona.EDU (8.11.1/8.11.1) id eA7FCwg04032
for icon-group-addresses; Tue, 7 Nov 2000 08:12:59 -0700 (MST)
Message-Id: <200011071512.eA7FCwg04032@baskerville.CS.Arizona.EDU>
From: Atle <trollet@skynet.be>
X-Newsgroups: comp.lang.icon
Subject: Re: Why Perl?
Date: Tue, 07 Nov 2000 12:50:35 +0100
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"Frank J. Lhota" wrote:
>
> 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. 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. Why, then, has Perl become so
> popular while Icon remains (relatively) obscure?
I am not sure, but it could be that it looks like a shell script.
Icon is something you have to learn, but Perl 'looks familiar'.
When the truth becomes obvious: Perl has a higher threshold than Icon, it is too late.
Good news: Icon is (probably) taught at the local university here.
I stumbled across a lot of second hand Icon manuals at the university bookshop.
Bad news: I would not have known Icon existed otherwise.
Programming languages like Icon and Beta must be given some publicity ... people choose Java and Perl because they don't know that
there are better alternatives.
This is what I think ... I have no idea if it is close to the truth.
Best wishes, Atle