I'm on the train to Switzerland for a job interview (no I'm not unemployed, I have a good well-paid -- by Italian standards -- pretty comfortable job with a huge solid company, but I'd like to go work abroad again), reading stuff I dumped this morning at home before leaving on my newly resurrected iPAQ*. Apart from Danah Boyd's Social Software, Sci-Fi and Mental Illness which was mentioned on Joel's latest entry, the only other interesting thing to read was Russ's sudden discovery of Perl.
I was a bit surprised to read that a Java developer with some exposure to Python (mainly due to his obsession with Series 60 phones, which sooner or later will get Python as their default scripting language) can suddenly discover Perl and even like it. I was more surprised when I read that a good part of Russ's sudden love for Perl is due to "Python's horrible documentation.[..] Python's docs were just half-ass and bewildering to me". . Horrible? How's that?
I've used my share of languages these past 10 years (and Perl was the first I loved), and I've never found anything as easy to learn and use as Python. The docs are a bit concise but well written, and they cover the base language features and all the standard library modules with a well-organized layout. And if the standard docs are not enough, you can always go search comp.lang.python, read PEPs on specific topics, read AMK's "What's new in Python x.x" for the current and older versions of Python, keep the Python Quick Reference open, or buy the Python Cookbook (which may give you the right to ask Alex about some obscure Python feature for the 1000th time on clp or iclp and get an extra 20 lines in his replies). And as for examples, you don't see many of them in the docs because Python has an interactive interpreter, and very good built-in introspection capabilities. So usually when you have to deal with a new module you skim the docs then fire up the interpreter, import the module, and start poking around to see how to use it. And while you're at the interpreter console, remember that dir(something) and help(something) are your friends. Maybe the Perl and Perl modules docs are so good (are they, really? I can't remember) because you would be utterly lost in noise without them, as Russ seems to notice in dealing with special variables, something that still gives me nightmares from time to time.
So I don't really get Russ's sudden love for Perl, nor am I overexcited by learning that he got invited to Foo Camp, as I'm usually not much into the "look how important/well known/an alpha geek I am" stuff (probably due to my not being important, or well known, and definitely not an alpha anything, apart for my dogs).
Rereading this entry after having posted it, and before I forget about Perl for next (hopefully many) years, I have to say that if despite everything you're really into Perl you should have a look at Damian Conway's excellent Object Oriented Perl, one of the best programming books I have read.
BTW, I live 50 kms away but I always forget how green Switzerland is. Oh, and I should remember to book a place in a non-smoking car next time, so as to lower my chances of sitting next to an oldy lady smoking Gauloises, exploding in bursts of loud coughing every odd minute, and traveling with super-extra-heavy suitcases she cannot move half an inch, let alone raise over the seats.
update This morning I found a reply by Russ in my inbox. I'm not an expert in the nuances of written English, but he did not sound happy with my post. I guess the adrenaline rush of going to a long interview in three different languages in a foreign country (not to say being a bit envious of work conditions overseas) made me come out harsher than I wanted to. Or maybe I just like pissing people off when I have nothing better to do, and they trumpet false opinions to the whole world (something I... uhm... never did). Anyway, it turns out Russ could not find the Python Library Reference, to learn how to use the mailbox module to parse a Unix mailbox. I guess sometimes it just pays to look twice, especially if not looking involves Perl.
As usual on my site, comments are disabled. I'm too lazy to add them to my homegrown blogging thing, and I have no time for dealing with comment spam. If you feel like you have something worthwile to say, reply to Russ's post on his blog, email me, or just get busy on something else for a few minutes then try to remember what you wanted to say, maybe this is not such an interesting topic as you thought.
update October 18, 2004 With all the excitement on podcasts these past weeks, which involved starting a new site and doing my own podcasts for Qix.it, I forgot to mention an email from Pete Prodoehl about the comments I make on US versus European work conditions and salaries in the footnote below. Pete writes:
Ludo, I certainly don't have the disposable income that many US bloggers seem to have. I know what you mean though. I constantly seem to come across posts where people say they handed down their old 20gig iPod because the got a new 40gig iPod.Thanks Pete, it's nice to learn that not all Americans live in Eden (I should know that myself, having lived there for a year, but it was a long time ago and things might have changed).
Honestly, it all sounds crazy to me... Then again, I live in the US Midwest, maybe things are different here as well. ;)
* I don't have the money to buy a new PDA (how do you people in the US manage to buy so many gadgets and crap anyway? don't you have to pay rent/bills/taxes/etc? aren't you hit by the recession or is it something only we Italians have to live with?), so I resurrected my iPAQ 3850 which had been lying around thinking itself a brick for ages, got a new battery off ebay, wiped out that sorry excuse for an operating system which is PocketPC, installed OPIE/Opie Reader/ JpluckX and soon had a working PDA again. I did not remember how much I missed having one, a smartphone is not the same thing. Now if only I had the money to buy a Zaurus SL-C860... back