From owner-freebsd-questions Mon Jan 21 0:42: 9 2002 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from lists.blarg.net (lists.blarg.net [206.124.128.17]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7963C37B405 for ; Mon, 21 Jan 2002 00:42:07 -0800 (PST) Received: from thig.blarg.net (thig.blarg.net [206.124.128.18]) by lists.blarg.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 33C23BD2E for ; Mon, 21 Jan 2002 00:42:07 -0800 (PST) Received: from localhost.localdomain ([206.124.139.115]) by thig.blarg.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id AAA04985 for ; Mon, 21 Jan 2002 00:42:06 -0800 Received: (from jojo@localhost) by localhost.localdomain (8.11.6/8.11.3) id g0L8jUC00705; Mon, 21 Jan 2002 00:45:30 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from swear@blarg.net) To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: what is a good language for system administration? References: <20020120132341.29b5cc8d.fxn@isoco.com> From: swear@blarg.net (Gary W. Swearingen) Date: 21 Jan 2002 00:45:30 -0800 In-Reply-To: <20020120132341.29b5cc8d.fxn@isoco.com> Message-ID: Lines: 15 User-Agent: Gnus/5.0808 (Gnus v5.8.8) XEmacs/21.1 (Cuyahoga Valley) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG > > I agree, IMHO bad code is not readable independently of the language in > which is written. Once you have mastered Perl, well-written Perl is > crystal clear, and often remarkably brief, concise. I second the > recommendations on studying portable sh and friends, and Perl. Unfortunately, the people who get to pick a systems SA language and who often write the initial round of it, are often very much smarter and more well trained in coding (esp. the langs. they pick) than the bulk of the poor schlums that have to deal with the stuff later or even write new stuff. SA type code is especially often prototypish and hacked up; it's even more important for it to be easy to read and understand than compiled codes for which there is usually more time to be careful. I think this argues strongly for Python (or almost anything) over Perl, as fun and clever as that language may be in the hands of an expert. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message