Re: Ok, what do you think of PERL
Re: Ok, what do you think of PERL
- Subject: Re: Ok, what do you think of PERL
- From: Doug McNutt <email@hidden>
- Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2001 20:01:50 -0600
Any thoughts to share knowing that I primarily use AppleScript.
perl (All lower case to the purists who work in case sensitive UNIX)
is great. It is pretty much limited to processing text files though.
Working directly with ,for instance, a jpeg is nearly impossible.
MacPerl, for system 9 and lower, can execute AppleScripts in text
form and send raw AppleEvents to other applications.
perl is not English text, but then neither is AppleScript. I
personally find that perl syntax is easier to learn and remember than
AppleScript where you are continually trying to figure out which
"obvious" English phrase will be understood. (But then it sure helps
to be familiar with C.)
perl is strictly portable. Any perl script which doesn't use Mac
specific constructs will run as well on your UNIX web server or your
peecee as it does on your Mac.
perl documentation is excellent. All you have to do is learn how to
read the pod files. Compared to AppleScript it's a dream.
perl is programmed with your favorite text editor. There is no
AppleScript editor which insists on reformatting your stuff.
Regular expressions in perl are the most powerful in the world. They
have become a default standard.
perl comes with several gigabytes of contributed modules downloadable
from CPAN (Comprehensive Perl Archive Network). All are free and well
documented by their authors.
MacPerl does applets and supports drag and drop onto their icons.
You need the O'Reilly book "Programming Perl" and, for MacPerl,
"MacPerl, Power and Ease". "Learning Perl" is a place to start but
you'll soon give it away.
MacOS neXt supports the real UNIX perl directly when using the terminal mode.
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