>Exercise 4-13. Write a function reverse(s) which reverses the string s by turning the mind inside out, converting madness into reality and opening the door to allow the Old Ones to creep forth once more from their sunken crypt beyond time.
... The tense extremes of horror are lessening, and I feel queerly drawn to recursive expressions instead of fearing them. I read and code strange things in sleep, and awake with a kind of exultation instead of terror. I do not believe I need to read all of SICP. If I did, my father would probably shut me up in a C++ shop as my poor little cousin is shut up. Stupendous and unheard-of splendors await me below, and I shall seek them soon. Defun progn r'assoc-if rplaca a ia! Defsetf! No, I shall not manage my own callstack-- I cannot be made to manage my own callstack!
I shall plan my cousin's escape from that Murray Hill mad-house, and together we shall go to marvel-shadowed Cambridge. We shall take the T out to that brooding lab near the Charles and dive down through black abysses to Cyclopean and many-threaded CSAIL, and in that lair of the Bearded Ones we shall dwell amidst wonder and glory for ever.
We've used it. For serious projects. That still exist, regularly demanding sacrifice of our sanity in the form of upkeep.
Seriously it's a braindead language that got to where it is by an accident of history. Which really sucks, because of how entrenched it is, we have to use it every now and then.
Would this be easier to do in Perl?