In “Cede Your Soul”, an episode of a tv show called “Blindspot”...



In “Cede Your Soul”, an episode of a tv show called “Blindspot” one hacker disses another hacker for using Perl instead of Python. You can see it around the 18:20 mark. 

The diss is that you can develop code faster in Python than Perl. The two languages are pretty similar in terseness. And any hacker worth their salt is going to build libraries in their language of choice. So would language even matter at that point? I think not, but what do you think? When seconds matter, what language would you reach for?

[From my blog.]

9 Comments

The diss fits the current state of the Perl/Python war, proving the writers did their research. It strikes me that, instead of writing code, they should be using code at this point. Bash vs zsh instead, maybe?

But, answering the question instead of the show, first choice is whatever language I have an available library or demo code for. I did a Startup Weekend where the product was financial transactions over SMS, so I spent the whole weekend beating on Twilio, and their sample code was in PHP, which I had never touched before. So I learned PHP.

All else being equal, it's the language where the syntax query involves my memory or grepping my own bin/ rather than Google or Stack Overflow. For me, that's Perl. And, increasingly, JavaScript.

This is so ridiculously stupid. Python vs. Perl vs [insert language here]. And if seconds matter, the situation is not something a quick hack is going to fix. In that case I would reach for another tool that speaks all languages, it's vocabulary is limited but it's message is instantly understood.

JT, you know none of that was directed at you or your blog post. I erased the rest of this reply cause it got socio-political (and that would just be throwing incendiary granades on thermite). Yes, I am a party pooper when the discussion involves the demonizing of others just for being "other". And thank goodness I did not know the world of programming was super serious. Maybe I can continue to ovoid that aspect. Cheers.

But can you orbiculate your ideas if you ovoid that aspect?

Does that mean you're a big endian?

Leave a comment

About JT Smith

user-pic My little part in the greater Perl world.