this post was submitted on 05 Sep 2023
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I started with Perl. This taught me a certain mindset that works well with Bash and Ruby. I've tried to learn Python several times and I just fucking hate it. I gave up when I realized that it just doesn't work the way that my brain works.
I wonder if the outcome would have been different if I'd started with Python? How might that have shaped my thinking / reasoning? Fwiw, I was also ok with PHP and SQL, but I don't know much or anything about the backgrounds on those foundations. Maybe my above statements were completely bullshit.
I used to love Perl as it worked the way my brain worked.
Then I started taking medication for ADHD.
I haven't used Perl since except for text parsing, it's an absolute hot mess of a language (though very powerful and functional at the things it does well)
That's super interesting.
I have a mental divergence that isn't ADHD. I was reviewing stats on it that said people who have it are some percent more likely to have ADHD. I wonder if my previous enjoyment of Perl is because I'm on an ADHD spectrum. It would be interesting to find out.
I kind of started with Python, and I hate Perl. Relying so much on global variables like $_, @_, $1, $2 is just the worst idea ever. Oh you want to call a function? Better be safe and backup all global variables you’re using, because they will be overwritten! Want to use some regex in a function? Better ensure all callers have made backups of the $1, $2, $3 variables.
The end result is just large amounts of defensive boilerplate everywhere because things will break if you don’t.
There’s also no good way to tell which functions use $_ without looking up the docs or keeping everything in memory.
The only merit Perl got in my opinion is its regex support. Quite handy for bash one liners time from time.