How did Perl gain a reputation for being a write-only language?
- by Andrew Grimm
How did Perl gain a reputation (deserved, undeserved, or used to be deserved, no longer so) of being a "write only language"?
Was it
The syntax of the language
Specific features that were available in the language
Specific features not being available in the language (or at least old versions of it)
The kind of tasks Perl was being used for
The kind of people who use Perl (people who aren't full-time programmers)
Criticism from people committed to another language
Something else?
Background: I'd like to know if some aspects that gave Perl the reputation of being write-only also apply to other languages (specifically ruby).
Disclaimer: I recognise that Perl doesn't force people to do write-only code (can any language?), and that you can write bad code in any language.
