MC> bandwagon it is TOTAL commitment.  The product has ZERO 
 MC> problems and no other product is better.  I'm laughing, 
 MC> not condeming.


 Hah!  My main point with PERL is that it is useful in many situations,
 is fairly robust, easy to program, and has saved me probably hundreds
 of hours in time.

 On the other hand, compiling it is a pain, especially on the ST, it
 lacks a standard set of GUI objects and doesn't transmit as fast as
 byte-code languages like Java (yes, there IS a Web-safe version of
 PERL as an alternative to Java).   Perl is also somewhat of a memory
 hog.  All those robust functions are all in one BIG 500K binary.
 Add to that your Curses or whatever other modules you have to statically
 link in (since Ataris won't do dynamic linking) and teh overhead of
 the variable/hashing system and your talking 800K of RAM for a simple
 script.  

 The idea isn't that I'm completely stuck on PERL and won't use anything
 else.  I've said and time and time again that you should use the best tool
 for the job - and PERL is like a whole toolbox full of tools as well as
 a workshop to make some tools.  BUt if you are gonna hammer a nail, you
 might need a hammer no matter what.   Since everyone else already knows
 about BASIC and C, it would be pretty redundant to talk about yet another
 C trick.  PERL is something most Atari users have never used or seen.
 I think its a pretty fantastic little langauge - and I don't base that
 off anything other than the amount of time it has saved me at work.


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