[Gllug] re: OSS CMSs

[Aaron Trevena]

On 4/28/05, Pete Ryland <pdr at createservices.com> wrote:
> Are you for or against TMTOWTDI?  It is often touted as one of Perl's
> biggest strengths.  Indeed, you say "Python lacks the expressiveness ... and
> it suffers from OnlyOneWayToDoIt"

It works well. It allows you to do it the clearest way in the given
context so that the code is a closer representation of what it does.

You don't always have to do it differently. It means that if you have
a new problem you don't have to apply the same solution to it. It also
means that beginners and advanced users can both be productive in the
same project or codebase.
 
> However, I think it's one of Perl's weaknesses and what makes one person's
> code hard to understand for someone else.  Everyone seems to write in their
> own subset of the language and to be able to read another's code one must
> basically grok the *whole* syntax, which is embarassingly huge in Perl
> compared to the simplicity of, say, python's syntax;

Thats funny as I haven't had a problem with it. It's a lot easier to
grok syntax than an API and thats where most professionals will spend
their time - dealing with APIs of libraries for particular tasks, not
the basic syntax.

> You seem to
> agree with me there too, when you say, "if you try and use the wrong idiom
> or syntax for a job it will show."  BTW, I also think this ia a weakness of
> C++.

It will show in any language, but perl is more expressive so if you
don't know what you are doing then it will show more. It's not a
weakness of the language - it allows people to get things done they
might otherwise not, from BOFHs writing a quick script to a beginner
writing something simple.

> Also, FYI, python's standard libraries do indeed cover email, db and other
> such things.

I didn't say they didn't, but they don't have much choice unless you
like to invent inhouse.

> Anyway, I guess my whole point is that I think reducing syntax aids
> readability, but the antithesis, to which Perl subscribes, may lead to many
> ways to do the same thing, but IMO hinders readability and maintainability.

That's your Humble Opinion and you're welcome to it even if you're wrong ;)

A.
-- 
Gllug mailing list  -  Gllug at gllug.org.uk
http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug