Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!julius.cs.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!midway!ellis.uchicago.edu!goer From: goer@ellis.uchicago.edu (Richard L. Goerwitz) Newsgroups: comp.lang.perl Subject: Re: perl compared to other Unix tools (was: a pointer for a perl compare script) Message-ID: <1990Dec8.020706.28417@midway.uchicago.edu> Date: 8 Dec 90 02:07:06 GMT References: <1990Dec5.060300.21410@midway.uchicago.edu> <275E7B47.2EB9@tct.uucp> Sender: news@midway.uchicago.edu (News Administrator) Organization: University of Chicago Lines: 34 In article stef@eng.sun.com writes: >> >> According to goer@quads.uchicago.edu (Richard L. Goerwitz): >> >Perl is not the only language around that is optimized for file, >> >string, and symbol processing, which has associative arrays, and handles >> >sorting and printing elegantly. If you can't think of any examples off- >> >hand then mail me, and I'll be glad to provide you with a few. >> >> Come now, Richard. If you criticize in public, you must put up your >> facts in public. Name these other languages. Oh yes, and please >> include availability and cost information. > >I agree very much with Chip; if you know a better tool than perl, you >should not let us in the dark. I think everyone is getting the wrong impression. When I posted, I had just read a description of a very specific problem. I then read a res- ponse in which someone declared perl uniquely able to handle it. While in some cases this is true, it was not true in the case I had just read about. The point was not that there were other tools out there which could replace perl, but rather that certain features found in perl (e.g. good string handling facilities, associative arrays, and what not) were by no means unique, and that for problems which required such facilities, perl was by no means a unique tool. I fully expect that once perl stabilizes, and the documentation begins to become readily accessible, it will become widely installed, and will become the tool of choice for most tasks now whipped together using a bunch of heterogenous tools, and glued in place with /bin/sh. Perl is filling a very important niche. Please continue perling! -Richard