promoting Perl (was Re: uutraffic report (in perl))

[Jim Budler]

dhesi%cirrusl at oliveb.ATC.olivetti.com (Rahul Dhesi) writes:

} Here's why I didn't install Perl when it first appeared on Usenet:  The
} volume of patches.  I like software that is stable, and Perl didn't
} seem to be.  It's too painful to keep updating a program.  It's nicer
} to have all the bugs fixed before you install the program.  That stage
} never seemd to arrive for Perl.

That stage has never arrived with netnews either 8^)

} Now with the recent Perl posting, I again see patches appearing almost
} simultaneously.

I can't actually disagree with you, however, perl won me over with
ONE simple example:

	% find <path> <pattern> -exec < most any command> \;
versus
	% find <path> <pattern> -print | perl -ne 'equiv_command;'

The performance improvement was HUGE!

I installed perl at a relatively stable point (2.04) and then monitored
the performance of patches against my installed scripts. My next installation
was 3.0p4, because I saw no gain before that, and 3.0a thru 3.0p2 didn't
work with my installed scripts. At 3.0p4 my installed scripts only required
a variable name change, due to a new builtin.

I am not a front running perl hacker by any means. I found enough value
in version 2 to install it, and felt that when 3.0 reached a certain point
it was worth going with the current version.

} Comments are welcome.

} Rahul Dhesi <dhesi%cirrusl at oliveb.ATC.olivetti.com>
} UUCP:  oliveb!cirrusl!dhesi

Just my network cleanup, cron based 'find' commands alone made
my initial investment payoff in real (not CPU) time. Our file
server didn't always get done with a midnight start 'core' hunt before
people came in in the morning. With perl it does, easily.

I wish I had more time to explore perl. I'm looking forward to
the book.

jim

-- 
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