The first in a series of 3 or 4 posts about programing so if you didn’t stop reading when I went away for a month or so maybe you should consider doing so now.

When I first started writing Perl, coming from a C/Java background, I was frankly horrified by the looseness of the typing and all sorts of other stuff . To add some much needed order to the proceedings I’d always use strict in order to get the interpreter to complain about things like out of scope variables and unexpected barewords. The fact that I was predominantly using BVP* helped to shield me from the barely constrained anarchy that Perl can so easily descend into.

Thing is once you start using Perl it’s easy to get frustrated with other languages, the occasionally wierd syntax and appallingly convoluted OO support kind of sucks you in (Ok, the OO support doesn’t suck you in, I would gladly never use another Perl object, which frankly make the whole issue even worse) because you get so used to it’s easy dealings with files and text processing that using anything else becomes a pain. It’s also faster than Ruby (approx 10-20 times faster, that matters for the kind of thing i tend to write at home i.e. brute force solutions to the weekly puzzles in New Scientist).

Anyway, the other day I figured out that if I turned off strict I could do things like use a variable name in a function call, not as an argument, actually as the function name. Part of my brain recoilled at the idea but I did it anyway, because it would save me about a page of code and you know what? I liked it. I know it’s wrong, and I know it’s the road to hell but I liked it. Unfortunately now I’m addicted, I’m doing things like using varibles as the names of other variables. And I’m doing it at work, If our perl guy ever found out I’d be in trouble, he’d probably treat me like an alcoholic and talk to me in an understanding tone of voice whilst explaining how our standard modules can help me (in 12 labourious steps) get through my problem…

So anyway, now I’m worried that I’m becoming a Perl Guy, before I know it I’ll be attending London Perlmongers and who know’s where it will end. Anyway, I’m pretty sure I don’t want to find out.

Help me Python, you’re my last hope.

*BBC Vernacular Perl cf. BVE (I’m reading the language instinct at the moment)