Comment Re:Perl, the Doner Kebab of Languages (Score 1) 55
Either way does me fine (I prefer a hybrid of positional and named a paremeters usually), the point was that side-effects of what makes one language good, don't always give the same benefits in other languages.
Try taking a C++ program and re-writing it in Prolog (or vice-versa), to quote a Larry Wall-ism "the trick is to use the strengths of a tool, not its weaknesses". Quote also Stroustrup on people implementing SmallTalk like classes in C++: "if you want to use SmallTalk, please do so; don't try and re-write it in C++". If you give me time I can probably find quotes to support the similar attitiude by Kernighan, Stallman, Torvalds et al.
My motto used to be "Never attribute to malice what is explained by ignorance", but its now "Never attribute to stupidity what is explained by a different, but internally consistent, value system".
Not so snappy, but it makes for great dinner party conversations
Tim
Try taking a C++ program and re-writing it in Prolog (or vice-versa), to quote a Larry Wall-ism "the trick is to use the strengths of a tool, not its weaknesses". Quote also Stroustrup on people implementing SmallTalk like classes in C++: "if you want to use SmallTalk, please do so; don't try and re-write it in C++". If you give me time I can probably find quotes to support the similar attitiude by Kernighan, Stallman, Torvalds et al.
My motto used to be "Never attribute to malice what is explained by ignorance", but its now "Never attribute to stupidity what is explained by a different, but internally consistent, value system".
Not so snappy, but it makes for great dinner party conversations
Tim
