I have to admit that using CL-PPCRE does not really help me understanding the regexp any better. But this may be because I deal with complex regexps for decades now, and I just read them.
Let’s put it this way: You can produce unreadable code in basically any language. With Perl, it is just a bit easier.
And of course if you have the discipline of a good programmer, even your casual Perl programs should be readable. That’s what differenciates a good programmer from a hacker.
Yeah, I was younger then, perhaps less disciplined, and as always, given enough work you can decompile or regenerate anything. Still, I contend, the nature of Perl, powerful as it was, lent itself to unmaintainable messes, and I’m not talking regex’s, which is why it has faded, no amount of get gud withstanding.
I upvoted this because I hate it.
Whatever you do, don’t get in a time machine back to 1998 and become a Unix sysadmin.
(Though we didn’t have CL-PPCRE then. It’s really the best thing that ever happened to regex.)
I have to admit that using CL-PPCRE does not really help me understanding the regexp any better. But this may be because I deal with complex regexps for decades now, and I just read them.
I upvoted you because I consider Perl write only (used to know it, now it inspires readable code as a high priority)
Let’s put it this way: You can produce unreadable code in basically any language. With Perl, it is just a bit easier.
And of course if you have the discipline of a good programmer, even your casual Perl programs should be readable. That’s what differenciates a good programmer from a hacker.
Yeah, I was younger then, perhaps less disciplined, and as always, given enough work you can decompile or regenerate anything. Still, I contend, the nature of Perl, powerful as it was, lent itself to unmaintainable messes, and I’m not talking regex’s, which is why it has faded, no amount of get gud withstanding.