From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.0 required=5.0 tests=MAILING_LIST_MULTI autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Received: (qmail 4871 invoked from network); 16 Nov 2021 18:06:27 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (45.79.103.53) by inbox.vuxu.org with ESMTPUTF8; 16 Nov 2021 18:06:27 -0000 Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 3AB129C887; Wed, 17 Nov 2021 04:06:24 +1000 (AEST) Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4D0B89C86E; Wed, 17 Nov 2021 04:04:30 +1000 (AEST) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 41EEF9C86E; Wed, 17 Nov 2021 04:04:28 +1000 (AEST) Received: from mcvoy.com (mcvoy.com [192.169.23.250]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id EEB959C854 for ; Wed, 17 Nov 2021 04:04:26 +1000 (AEST) Received: by mcvoy.com (Postfix, from userid 3546) id 916C135E4CA; Tue, 16 Nov 2021 10:04:26 -0800 (PST) Date: Tue, 16 Nov 2021 10:04:26 -0800 From: Larry McVoy To: Jon Steinhart Message-ID: <20211116180426.GW10157@mcvoy.com> References: <202111161754.1AGHsGsN929905@darkstar.fourwinds.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <202111161754.1AGHsGsN929905@darkstar.fourwinds.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.24 (2015-08-30) Subject: Re: [TUHS] Book Recommendation [ reallly inscrutable languages ] X-BeenThere: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.26 Precedence: list List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Cc: TUHS main list Errors-To: tuhs-bounces@minnie.tuhs.org Sender: "TUHS" On Tue, Nov 16, 2021 at 09:54:16AM -0800, Jon Steinhart wrote: > Douglas McIlroy writes: > > APL is a fascinating invention, but can be so compact as to be > > inscrutable. (I confess not to have practiced APL enough to become > > fluent.) In the same vein, Haskell's powerful higher-level functions > > make middling fragments of code very clear, but can compress large > > code to opacity. Jeremy Gibbons, a high priest of functional > > programming, even wrote a paper about deconstructing such wonders for > > improved readability. > > Wasn't Perl created to fill this void? My belief is that perl was written to replace a lot of Unix pipelines, which are awesome when you discover them but less awesome as they become complex (error handling in a pipeline is pretty tricky if you actually want to handle stuff nicely). I was a huge fan of Perl 4, still am, wrote a source management system in it while at Sun. It wanted you to be pretty disciplined in how you wrote it or it becomes write only, but if you are, it was really pleasant. -- --- Larry McVoy lm at mcvoy.com http://www.mcvoy.com/lm