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[-] DreadPirateShawn 88 points 2 months ago

The ternary syntax is really my only real gripe with python design -- putting the conditional BETWEEN the true and false values feels so very messy to me.

[-] balsoft@lemmy.ml 22 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Eh, reads pretty naturally to me. That said, (like I lisp)

[-] Shareni@programming.dev 17 points 2 months ago

Lisps makes more sense to me though

(if condition a b)

VS

a if condition else b

[-] balsoft@lemmy.ml 9 points 2 months ago

I was more talking about (+ a b) and such.

[-] rovingnothing29@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Oh, (you) (really) (like) (Lisp)? (That's) (great!)

[-] hydroptic@sopuli.xyz 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

(is great (oh (really (like-p lisp you))))

[-] rbos@lemmy.ca 12 points 2 months ago

It's kinda natural to me having used Perl a lot.

[-] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 22 points 2 months ago

That's not quite the argument you might think it is

[-] rbos@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 months ago
[-] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 14 points 2 months ago
[-] rbos@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 months ago

heheh. I wasn't really making an argument though

[-] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

The joke was that Perl is a clusterfuck

[-] rbos@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 months ago

It certainly has its issues. I find that the things people have trouble with are the things I tend to like about it. Of course, reading it later is a problem sometimes. :)

Write only language!

I still reach for it sometimes.

[-] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

The point of code is to be read by other humans, not just computers.

[-] rbos@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 months ago

Sure. Nothing stopping you writing readable well commented perl. Just avoid some of the more terse statements. It can be a challenge though.

Shrug. If you don't like Perl, don't use it.

[-] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

But I want to mock it good-naturedly, too.

[-] msage@programming.dev 2 points 2 months ago

A lots of things stop you from writing readable Perl code.

You have to forget half of the syntax first. Set perlcritic to max. Force whitespaces.

Download ton of packages for every little thing and hope they are cool with each other.

And still deal with edge cases that make you pluck your eyes out.

[-] rbos@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 months ago

FVO readable for future me, it's not so bad. I don't have to worry about other people so much. :)

[-] l3mming@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

You clearly haven't used Perl a lot. Perl's ternary looks like:

$even = $num % 2 ? "nay" : "yay";

Incidentally, it is also the same as PHP's, but mainly because PHP stole it.

[-] psud@aussie.zone 2 points 2 months ago

You do get the if in the middle of stuff though in the form print(debug message) if $debug

[-] palordrolap@fedia.io 5 points 2 months ago

Wait until you learn that postfix conditionals are syntactic sugar and the compiler* turns that line into the equivalent of $debug and print(debug message), putting the conditional in first place, a lot like the ternary operator.

* Perl compiles to bytecode before running.

The ternary operator itself isn't implemented in terms of and (and or) but it could be.

[-] psud@aussie.zone 4 points 2 months ago

Luckily I don't need to read or write bytecode and all that matters to me is the syntax

[-] rbos@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 months ago

perl -e 'print "fart\n" if 1;'

[-] porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 months ago

I think it's just what you're used to. Imo it really matters that it's keywords and not operator symbols - it's meant to read closer to natural language. I prefer the c version when it's ? and :, but I like them this way round when it's if and else.

this post was submitted on 12 Jun 2025
576 points (100.0% liked)

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