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Re: Is perl still the No.1 language for sysadmin?



On Mon, Apr 3, 2023 at 1:31 PM Emanuel Berg <incal@dataswamp.org> wrote:
>
> Jeffrey Walton wrote:
>
> >> I saw many commands in /bin and /usr/bin are written by
> >> perl. is perl still the first choice for sysadmin on linux?
> >
> > I am surprised this thread has not started a mini-flame war.
>
> We are working on it ...
>
> > About the best you can say is, Perl is one of the more
> > popular scripting languages. Trying to pin down the "best"
> > will fail because it is opinion based.
>
> I think the true professional should be able to read/edit both
> and be pretty fluent in at least one. (Here, by professional
> I mean in terms of skills and dedication, not necessarily
> making a living doing it.) Perl is cooler and more old-school,
> maybe ultimately more powerful and creative from what you guys
> say about it, but if you don't know either I think the ease of
> learning it, development speed, the volume of people doing it
> and available resources to help you with that online, that
> favors Python as the 1st choice.
>
> > Next, you might ask which is the best editor to use on Unix
> > & Linux. That should really stir the pot :) Emacs for
> > the win!
>
> You better believe it. It is based on Lisp!
>
> But I have respect for the Vi(m) people as well, for sure, not
> sure exactly what the currently prefered Vim-style editor
> implementation is? neovim?
>
> Here are the most popular channels on Libera right now.
> See arrows for editors, unless I missed someone.
>
> Emacs (position 16) has 854, Vim (22) has 705 and neovim (41)
> 490. However combined Vim has 1195 which would be position 6 -
> overlap not considered ...
>
> I you like that table (the enumeration), I made it with this:
>
>   https://dataswamp.org/~incal/emacs-init/enum.el [yanked last]
>
> Note the `cl-loop' at line 27 - I mentioned it earlier, CL
> functionality implemented in Elisp - and note especially the
> "unlispy" syntax - this as someone touched upon, that in Perl
> you can do the same thing in different ways - here we see
> a miniature language (the unlispy syntax, which is
> imperative/procedural in style, only better), replicating the
> behavior of another language CL, implemented by and used
> in Elisp!
>
> Still not convinced? Okay, use Vim, really, it's cool ...
>
>  1. #linux           2184
>  2. #fedora          1696
>  3. #python          1688
>  4. #libera          1577
>  5. #archlinux       1474
>  6. #ubuntu          1146
>  7. #networking      1035
>  8. ##rust            968
>  9. #ansible          894
> 10. #security         884
> 11. #gentoo           875
> 12. #bash             867
> 13. #git              857
> 14. #c                857
> 15. #postgresql       856
> 16. #emacs            854  <-- Emacs
> 17. #debian           843
> 18. ##programming     760
> 19. #go-nuts          718
> 20. #openbsd          717
> 21. #freebsd          714
> 22. #vim              705  <-- Vim
> 23. #thelounge        705
> 24. #hardware         702
> 25. #haskell          680
> 26. #wireguard        668
> 27. #weechat          649
> 28. #lobsters         623
> 29. #plasma-bigscreen 613
> 30. ##math            609
> 31. #matrix           608
> 32. #raspberrypi      580
> 33. #znc              578
> 34. #C++              573
> 35. #docker           556
> 36. #monero           530
> 37. #systemd          525
> 38. ##electronics     510
> 39. #podman           499
> 40. ##chat            495
> 41. #neovim           490  <-- neovim
> 42. #hamradio         485

Here are three more data points.

   * Emacs - 41 CVEs since 2000 [1]
   * Vi - 61 CVEs since 1999 [2]
   * Vim - 656 CVEs since 2001 [3]

I'm not sure how many CVEs overlap for Vim due to Vi.

Jeff

[1] https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvekey.cgi?keyword=emacs
[2] https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvekey.cgi?keyword=vi
[3] https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvekey.cgi?keyword=vim


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