Re: Perl, yum, and DBD::DB2?

On Tue, Jan 01, 2019 at 05:15:06AM -0500, John Yeung wrote:

I think there is a basic matrix that goes like this:

Fan of both C and Perl: "Perl is C-like"
Fan of both C and Python: "Python is C-like"
Fan of Perl but not C: "Perl is not C-like"
Fan of Python but not C: "Python is not C-like"

It's natural and understandable. But I think most people who know both
Perl and Python would say that neither one is much like C. Perl has
some superficial syntax which is more C-like (for loops,
block-delimiting curly braces) and some superficial syntax which very
much isn't (sigils, things like @_, all the regex stuff, etc.). At a
deeper level Perl and Python are much more like each other (and Ruby
and Lua) than either one is like C.

Fair enough. Because of its block delimiters and statement terminators,
Perl's syntax, at least superficially, makes it look to me like a much
stronger candidate to be included in the C language family than Python.
Python's syntax looks nothing like C to me. It might have been influenced
by C, but to me it looks nothing like C.

I guess I'm in the like Perl and C but don't like Python camp. Granted, I
don't like everything about Perl and/or C either. I'm not a fan of sigils
in general. Combine sigils with special variables and/or dereferencing, add
in a regex here and there, and some Perl syntax can look downright bizarre.
C's string handling, or lack thereof, pointers, and dynamic memory
allocation can make some things painful to do in C. I've tried many
languages from BASIC to S/370 assembler. Just recently I started dabbling
with Lisp. I have yet to find a language I absolutely love. So far Perl is
the language I turn to most often. I like enough about it to put up with
the stuff I dislike about it. And the vast number of modules available on
CPAN helps add to its appeal.