On: Why Perl?

[gatlin]

> proper function arguments

  my ($a, $b, $c) = @_; # this works

Or I can do things like

  my ($first, @rest) = @_;

giving me features which require all manner of annoying syntax in Python.

> exceptions

http://search.cpan.org/~nilsonsfj/Error-TryCatch-0.07/lib/Er...

or just eval and see what the output is.

> objects

Edit: I was being an asshole Perl has a decent object system out of the box and Moose for those times when you want type constraints.

  package MyClass;
  use base 'Parent';
  
  sub new { my $class = shift; bless { prop1 => undef },   $class; }
  
  package main;

  my $obj = new MyClass;

> etc

Lexical scoping, anonymous coderefs that can be passed as data, modifiable syntax, reference semantics, and the regex engine I see other languages comparing theirs too.

[kbd → gatlin]

> giving me features which require all manner of annoying syntax in Python

    def foo(first, *rest):

vs

    sub foo{
        my ($first, @rest) = @_;

?

[gatlin → kbd]

  >>> def foo(first, *rest):
  ...  print first
  ...  print rest
  
  >>> foo([1,2,3])
  [1,2,3]
  ()

*

  sub foo {
    my ($first,@rest) = @_;
    print $first . "\n"; 
    print @rest;
  }

  foo (1,2,3);

  1
  23

*

It's probably my Python deficiency. My claim that Python's syntax was going to be uglier is probably wrong, but I think the claim that Perl's is appreciably worse is also wrong. We can all get along!

[TylerE → gatlin]

Not sure I follow you. Your python example is very explicitly passing a _single_ arguement, a list of three items. If you call it the same way you call the perl code, you'd have the same result.

[phaylon → gatlin]

Exactly, it's a trade-off. Making the other side of the fence not impossible to reach, you just have to hop a little. Perl can easily be made nicer and Python can surely with ease be made more flexible.

[Mithaldu → kbd]

use Method::Signatures;

func set (Str $key, Int $val) {