Todd,



IMO, Perl can be made to look at least as inscrutable as APL.



But there's nothing intrinsic in the language that forces you

to write code that can't be understood.



It is unfortunate that some practitioners love to write concise

(i.e., difficult to understand) code, especially trying to fit it

all on one line.



Good Perl code should have lots of comments and clear

structure, just like any other language which can be written

so it can be easily understood.



Nothing like having to go back to code you wrote 4 years

ago at 3 am with no comments, to encourage good writing

style.



Just my 2 cents.



Carl Friedberg

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www.esb.com

The Elias Book of Baseball Records

2015 Edition





-----Original Message-----

From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of ToddAndMargo

Sent: Wednesday, July 01, 2015 12:33 PM

To: [log in to unmask]

Subject: Re: Modula 2?



On 07/01/2015 03:23 AM, David Sommerseth wrote:

> On 01/07/15 04:25, toddandmargo wrote:

>>

>>

>> ---- On Tue, 30 Jun 2015 14:41:41 -0700 *Konstantin Olchanski

>> <[log in to unmask]>* wrote ----

>>

>>      On Mon, Jun 29, 2015 at 06:59:29PM -0700, ToddAndMargo wrote:

>>      >

>>      > Is Modula2 available for SL 6 and 7?

>>      >

>>

>>      pascal -> modula-2 -> oberon -> java -> go

>>

>>

>> Maybe I should just give up and learn Perl

>

> These days Python and Perl are pretty safe languages which usually is

> part of most basic Linux installations.  If you extend it to the BSD

> family, Perl is safest.

>

> However Python most likely have an easier learning curve than Perl.

> Both languages are, IMHO, good alternatives.  But I generally find

> Python code much easier to to read.  Performance wise, they can both

> perform very well.

>

> If you have no Python experience at all, I can recommend this book:

> <http://www.diveintopython.net/>

>

>



I have found that the biggest issue I have with Perl is folks

trying to cram the sun, the moon, and stars all on to one

line.  I much prefer to break things up into several line

to make them as self documenting as possible.



But at least I can figure Perl out most of the time when

I see it.  I have a harder time with C and I know I shouldn't