Re: [Xen-devel] Re: [patch rfc 1/3] xen arch header rework.

[Julian Davison <julian-xen_devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Gerd Hoffmann wrote:
> I don't think adding perl as build dependency is a big problem, almost
> everyone has it on the machine anyway.  Try "rpm -e perl" on any linux
> distro and watch the error message with the long list of stuff which
> depends on perl.
While I realise this is drifting from the topic somewhat,
if I could just say:
jade:~# rpm -e perl
rpm: To install rpm packages on Debian systems, use alien. See 
README.Debian.
error: cannot open Packages index using db3 - No such file or directory (2)
error: cannot open /var/lib/rpm/packages.rpm

Perl is most certainly on that system, but 'perl is everywhere'
is a little like 'rpm is everywhere'.

> Wrt. readability of the scripts:  That is IMO more a matter of the
> programming style than of the programming language.  Sure you can easily
> write unreadable perl code, but you don't have to.  And you better
> shouldn't, just in case you have to touch the scripts again one year later.
I spend far more time with python than I do perl, I confess,
however one of my colleagues spends no time with either and
has far less trouble understanding python than perl.
In terms of novice-readability perl has a whole bunch of
(really useful) line noise constructs. =~, say.

In many cases having a tool in an 'odd' language is better than
no tool at all, but in general the fewer dependencies the better.


--
Julian Davison
Note: 1) This may have come from an address @cbhs.school.nz
         but isn't necessarily the (or even an) official view
         of Christchurch Boys' High School
      2) While replying to this address may get into my mailbox
         it will almost certainly be filtered into a mailing list
         folder. To actually reach actual me, strip off the bit
         after the '-' in the name.

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