Perl is my only language, its a monoculture like a family, dysfunctional at
 times, but show me a family isn't (at times).
 
 In fact the whole public domain seems a little goofy at times but I stick with
 it because I know the end results are going to be fantastic.
 
 Perl is designed in a true democracy, chaotic at times.  Even the group
 decision to keep the Y2K "bug" intact is endearing.
 
 It seems Larry Rosler wants to change all that.
 
 I am cut+pasting from 
 http://www.perl.com/pub/2000/06/rosler.html?wwwrrr_20000606.txt
 
 In his own words:
 
 LR: I believe that [ Perl needs ANSI standardization ], in order to increase
 its acceptability...
 
 ME:  Perl is already everywhere, it is the single most used language on the
 web, Java lacks performance an always seems to be in court.  A few stuffed
 shirts seem to be in denial about perl but their days are numbered anyway.
 
 LR: I was experimenting with CGI programming using shell ... Soon I discovered
 that Perl ... was much more expressive and much 
 
 ME: Duh !!  Shell is nearly useless.
 
 LR:  ... 'official' Perl semantics has [ err, have ] never been adequately
 characterized independent of the implementation, so is subject to arbitrary
 change.
 
 ME: Arbitrary ??  I can honestly say that I have never seen a single perl
 feature that didn't make me proud of the perl way of making decisions.  Its a
 model for the whole human race :)
 
 LR: Building on quicksand is acceptable for 'scripts' of limited longevity 
 
 ME: Hugh ??  Knowing systems operations, I am guessing most scripts will out
 live Bell Labs, even UN*X
 
 LR: Ilya Zakharevitch is most outspoken in his view that Perl is not (yet?) a
 'programming' language!
 
 ME: Applications building language !!  Perl does not seek to replace C, but
 work w/ it (and the others.) Its a philosophy _and_ a desert topping.
 
 LR: people should devote their attention to firming up the semantics and making
 sure that the implementation conforms to those semantics, rather than the other
 way around
 
 ME: No more swiss-army-chainsaw, :`(
 
 Joe Johnston: Or to Perl's charmingly permissive OO implementation. 
  
 ME: Gush !!
 
 LR: I am less concerned about individual programmers [ and ] more concerned
 about major corporations or government agencies 
 
 ME:  Perl is a collage of individuals who wont be denied, even in the
 workplace. It seems LR wants to hand it over to the suits.  
 
 The new economy smart enough to reject corporate welfare and bold enough to
 take on the lazy big-caps.  Perl is the language to do it. 
 
 LR:  Samuel Johnson: "When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it
 concentrates his mind wonderfully."
 
 ME: Better start thinking a little smarter because the small-caps are the clear
 winners, the old economy is hanging by a thread and doesn't even know it.
 
 LR: Python is [in]sufficient to give it a critical mass and I don't think
 significant inroads are being made. 
 
 ME: My sources tell me that Python is _the_ language to learn from.  It will
 never achieve chainsaw status, and thats probably a good thing.  Small is
 beautiful.  Thanks for denigrating it, now I'm going to take the plunge.
 
 LR: I have never needed to write an object in any program.  And, as I said, to
 me OO is a big yawner.
 
 ME: Hey, news flash: CPAN = OO modules !!
 
 Joe Johnston:  How much longer do you see the "Internet Goldrush" continuing? 
 
 LR: Judging by the recent performance of the NASDAQ, it may be over already.
 
 ME: Well since then the gold rush has half returned.  This statement is typical
 of the cynicism and ignorance that caused the tumble in the first place.
 
 I support the small-caps but dont want work for them for the simple reason that
 they will make me work.  
 
 Fact is that you can actually fall asleep in your big-cap cubicle for years...
 I dont sleep, obviously, but I spend all my time fathoming how perl is going to
 save our werld.  
 
 The economy today is global.  The NASDAQ collapse was thought of as an internet
 failure, but that was the media talking out their ass.
 
 A quick lesson:  There are several indexes which show the whole picture.  While
 the connection between the stocks and investment is dubious at best, its the
 only game in the global village.  We, the privileged, vote for our economy by
 buy stocks in the sectors we support, usually through funds.
 
 DOW:  The fat cats, receivers of corporate welfare
 S&P 500: Generally midcaps, it spans the distance to the next layer, the
 Russell 2000:  Small, aggressive successful companies who pray each and every
 day for lower interest rates 
 NASDAQ: Similar to the Russell 2000, in fact the charts are parallel.  
 
 The trend since y2k is clear.  Smaller companies, despite high interest rates,
 started eating the bigcaps for lunch.  Technology is a key booster, but other
 stuff is going on.  
 
 Leading up to March 10th peak the whole world was elated.  To quote some old
 cowboy, "you spit in the desert and a flower blooms."  
 
 In a way, these broken investments are the best because recovery is pure
 growth, and growth is profit.  For example, the application of translation
 software to an array of B2B applications simply drops state of the art business
 services on any broken nation instantly fixing it making it a viable trading
 partner.
 
 From y2k until the end of March, the naz and the dow were oscillating against
 each other.  Growth possibilities brought down the dow, interest rate fears
 boosted the dow and killed the naz.  Now both are growing, but, face it, the
 big caps are doomed, though we may have to topple the berlin wall here in US.
 
 Clearly, the big-caps are not interested in seeing their coporate welfare
 evaoprate, nor do they want to be gobbled alive by the up-and-comings.
 
 Greenspan exists to keep their machine running.  His contradictory statements
 would have made Nixon blush.  His claims of controlling inflation are pure lie,
 he only seeks to lower one number, OUR salaries.
 
 That and only that number will determine interest rate hikes.  The problem is
 that we are worth the money, and always have been.  And perlers are worth even
 ore.
 
 LR: Each of us is working on the Perl Golf tournament
 
 ME: There ya go !!
 
 
 
 
 
 =====
 John van Vlaanderen
 
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