The joy of rediscovering Perl – Eskild Hustvedt
12 days ago
- #Programming
- #Nostalgia
- #Perl
- The author rediscovered Perl programming and found it delightful.
- Perl was the author's first programming language, learned from 'Learning Perl' (3rd edition).
- Perl was chosen due to its use in Mandrake Linux, which the author contributed to.
- The author's first long-term programming job involved Perl.
- Over time, the author drifted towards other languages like JavaScript but still used Perl for scripts.
- Recent NPM issues made the author miss Perl's dependency management via distro package managers.
- The author decided to write a static site generator in Perl, finding it enjoyable.
- Perl's features like 'strict' mode and 'state' variables make coding safer and more convenient.
- Perl has evolved with new features like subroutine signatures and built-in try/catch.
- Perl is fast at both runtime and compile time, important for client-side programs.
- The author's Perl-based static site generator, BoringSSG, is progressing well.
- Perl has improved over the years while retaining its core strengths.
- The author recommends revisiting Perl or other past favorite languages for renewed coding joy.