[sf-lug] Tutor me in Programming?

[Jeff Bragg]

> PHP also allows some crimes against comput-manity... ;)


This is true, but it does so through poor basic design (e.g. its ~3600
built-in functions that altogether give you no more functionality than
Perl's ~200 built-ins, and are not even following a specific derivational
nomenclature to make it possible to reliably guess the name of the function
you need), whereas Perl simply provides you with enough rope to either solve
your problem, or hang yourself, whichever you choose to do.  The moral is
that, if you actually understand the (admittedly sometimes esoteric) Perl
idiom, Perl will reliably and predictably do what you ask it to; I can't in
good faith assert the same about PHP.

I agree with earlier comments about the utility of learning Python.  One of
its great strengths is legibility and simplicity of code.  It also includes
some nice functional programming constructs (e.g. filter function, list
comprehensions).  I personally like Perl, but that's also because I'm fluent
in the language and fairly well-versed in its many strange, dark alleys.
FWIW, before I really learned Perl deeply, my language of choice was Python;
it's still generally my second choice.
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