Re: Is perl still the No.1 language for sysadmin?
On 4/2/23 14:36, Oliver Schoede wrote:
Seems to me
people easily forget this but Perl was intended, created to be a tool.
A text processing tool. Not a language, or environment like Python.
https://www.linuxjournal.com/article/3394
Marjorie: Back in the beginning, what inspired you to write Perl?
Larry: ... The beginnings of Perl were directly inspired by running into
a problem I couldn't solve with the tools I had. Or rather, that I
couldn't easily solve. As the Apostle Paul so succinctly put it, “All
things are possible, but not all things are expedient.” I could have
solved my problem with awk and shell eventually, but I possess a
fortuitous surplus of the three chief virtues of a programmer: Laziness,
Impatience and Hubris. I was too lazy to do it in awk because it would
have been hard to get awk to jump through the hoops I was wanting it to
jump through. I was too impatient to wait for awk to finish because it
was so slow. And finally, I had the hubris to think I could do better.
So is it still the first choice for sysadmin work on Linux? Well I
doubt it, I also doubt it ever was. That would be shell. ;)
+1
Be that as it may I don't see much of a reason for learning Perl today
unless you're a die-hard hobbyist with near infinite amount of time
and an undying penchant for obsolete technology.
I find Perl to be very useful for a great many other tasks, including
sysadmin. People can and do write anything from throw-away one-liners
to N-tier network applications in Perl; some "bet their business" on Perl.
Gaining basic proficiency with Perl requires a moderate investment of
time, money, and effort. ~25 years ago, I bought the Llama book, worked
through the first ~30% in one afternoon, and loved it. After that, the
Cookbook provided me with the examples and explanations I needed to
start writing useful Perl scripts. The Camel book is the language
reference; for when you need definitive information:
https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/learning-perl-8th/9781492094944/
https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/perl-cookbook-2nd/0596003137/
https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/programming-perl-4th/9781449321451/
Perl is not obsolete; Perl is mature.
David
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