The (Programming Language) Hat(drmaciver.com)
drmaciver.com
The (Programming Language) Hat
http://www.drmaciver.com/2011/06/the-programming-language-hat/
6 comments
I know. I actually keep meaning to properly learn perl (I can just about read it and don't really bother using it for one liners as I tend to find joe-random-scripting language + sedawk cover enough bases).
But when one prefaces a post with "You know what we haven’t had in a while? An irritating but catchy meme in which we shallowly compare programming languages based on superficial characteristics. Those are awesome" people who take it seriously deserve what they get :-)
But when one prefaces a post with "You know what we haven’t had in a while? An irritating but catchy meme in which we shallowly compare programming languages based on superficial characteristics. Those are awesome" people who take it seriously deserve what they get :-)
If I read another article of the form "If language X were a Y, it'd have property Z", I might throw myself off of a bridge.
I'd say that the COBOL hat would be one of those thin-brimmed fedoras from the 60's, but that's just too cool for COBOL. COBOL doesn't get a hat that was worn by Frank Sinatra.
I'd go for the green eyeshade:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Visorlayout.jpg
Anachronistic, looks absolutely silly if worn today, and was probably only worn by uptight number crunchers even back in the 60's.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Visorlayout.jpg
Anachronistic, looks absolutely silly if worn today, and was probably only worn by uptight number crunchers even back in the 60's.
Good call on the green eyeshade.
Perhaps COBOL can get a straw boater?
What's the Hatter hat, then?
http://esolangs.org/wiki/Hatter
http://esolangs.org/wiki/Hatter
Modern Perl is really a very different language than what people tend to think of when they hear the word "Perl". It has a real OO layer (Moose), a mature set of web frameworks (Plack), and generally-accepted best practices that ensure code is just as readable and maintainable as Python or Ruby.
If all you know of Perl is hacky one-liners for munging logfiles, skim a copy of the book Modern Perl: http://onyxneon.com/books/modern_perl/index.html . You might just learn something.