Java and Perl (was Re: [plug] Time & Task Management Tool)

[Christian]

Trevor Phillips wrote:

> > Both have their place. Perl's user interface sucks. Java's specifically
> > NOT aimed at OS-dependent stuff. I think Java's networking's better: I
> > have just started using Net:FTP. My ftp timed out and I've not got the
> > foggiest idea of what to do about it whereas Java would throw some kind of
> > exception and I would find that easy to fix.
> 
> Perl's User Interface? It's versatile is what it is. In its simplest
> form, it's stdout, same as most UNIX text-based apps. Even that allows
> you to use HTML as the interface. With the addition of libraries, Perl's
> interface can be almost anything (eg; Gtk/Gimp).

I think Perl has more graphical libraries (if this is what you're
referring to when you say "user interface") than Java so you could say
Perl is a better UI than Java.  And it's true that Perl doesn't try to
be platform-independent but it still manages to do a pretty good job at
it.  The Perl interpreter will always try and find the closest possible
match to the function that's requested for the platform it's running on
and most of the time the results are pretty good.  Besides, I've heard
it said many times that TCL/TK is more successful at platform
independence than Java.

With the exception of OO and platform independence, anything Java can
do, Perl can do better.  But this whole argument is pretty stupid since
they're both such different languages aimed at very different
applications.

Regards,

Christian.

-- 
========================================================================
I'm not trying to give users what they want, I'm trying to give them
freedom, which they can then accept or reject. If people don't want
freedom, they may be out of luck with me, but I won't allow them to 
define for me what is right, what is worth spending my life for.
                                                    - Richard Stallman