This was my first thought and I actually looked to see if it was a gag site. Otherwise I agree with other comments that it needs to be a CLI tool to become truly useful for me.
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The kernel actually talks to the hardware, gives system calls access to what they need, does process management, multi-tasking, etc. etc. But an Operating System is a heck of a lot more than that. Thus the big 'GNU/Linux' thing.
My understanding is that his idea is to re-write as much as possible (certainly all the boot scripts, core utils, etc.) in node/js.
I think this is more likely just an fun excercise than likely to actually go anywhere - but it is the kind of thing I've wondered about doing (but not in javascript!).
You could come up with many unique and interesting things to do with a js based shell... perhaps more background jobs coolness.
My guess is that because Node has access to the file system and can create,update,delete files, along with all of the networking which comes out of the box, it can do much of what an 'operating system' can from the experience of many people. It can create and manage files. The Linux kernel is still doing all the heavy lifting and i/o.
As I believe you target this to mathematicians mainly, I would suggest putting some more sophisticated (a mathematics "milestone") equation as an example, instead of simple quadratic equation.
A bit of a kneejerk reaction admittedly, but historically any post about Perl on reddit or HN garners reactions proclaiming how perl is entirely dead and how Python is objectively infinitely superior.
I am afraid Python fans have a history of trolling Perl. Pick up any Perl thread and you will see enough examples of Python people trying to forcing their principles down your throat, even if there is absolutely no context to mention it.
Hate is an emotional response that humans have ... how can you tell if the comment was trolling or simply a visceral response?
I don't hate Perl (I first learned CGI programming with it), but I do think there are better ways to write maintainable, enterprise scale software. There are two main problems with Perl (as I see it): 1) The language is so permissive that it allows newbs to write bad code but still obtain results. Habits, both good and bad are learned! 2) Perl experts seem to delight in writing code that's "tricky" (for lack of a better word). It's like a contest to see who can wring the most out of one 80-character line of code and it leads to mid-to-low functioning Perl programmers being confused.
The modern perl5 production platform is mostly made up of modules built and maintained to intentionally make people -not- go 'wtf?' all the time.
Modern Perl and other recent books push people towards developing good habits.
The current generation of experts tend to either put our tricky in very well encapsulated CPAN modules, or comment the hell out of it, or both ... or if at all possible, stick it into a paste site somewhere for other people to go "whee!" at and do something sensible in the main codebase.
Your complaints about perl were absolutely valid a decade ago ... these days there's still some truth to them, but we've grown up a lot since then :)
I am a perl lover. For me, the TIMTOWTDI means mainly that I can write code the way I think. When I have an idea of a solution for a problem, I have no effort to make to translate this idea into perl because there exists always a concise syntax for it. Perl does not limit your thinking. Instead of loosing time fighting to adapt your mind to the language, you have freedom to improve your skills. The more you improves, the more you find cases where not common syntaxes appear to be useful. At the end, when you are an experienced perl programmer, you master most of the syntax "tricks" used by the others experienced perl programmers.
Hmmm ... I have found the same feeling with every language I've mastered. I never did master Perl but even if I had, I would have set it aside like most of the other languages that I have mastered when a compelling new language/tool/system came out. I try not to form an emotional relationship with my tools as it might adversely limit my adaptability.
Try Java. Java has its merits, but they mostly revolve around defending you from hundreds of current and former coworkers, not merging your mind with the machine the way Perl does.
>> The language is so permissive that it allows newbs to write bad code but still obtain results
How is this different than any other language? You can write bad code in any language. Perl might allow for more obfuscated code which really makes it harder to read - but that again reflects on the programmer - not the language. Take a look at a code in PHP, Python, C, or any language written by "newbs" and you will see poor practices used everywhere.
>> The language is so permissive that it allows newbs to write bad code but still obtain results
I can't see any relevance for a professional choice if newbies can shoot bigger holes in their foot with a certain tool.
That is a natural result of a powerful tool.
>> Perl experts seem to delight
Anecdotal. Ten years old description of half humorous use (and exercises). Also very different from best practices even then -- and especially different from how many/most work today.
Let me also note: If Perl wasn't better in many ways, you trolls would make serious arguments instead of "experts seem to delight"... [Or as you wrote above "Twenty-five years already? Now it can retire with full benefits."]
But I'll bite a little. Perl has the best OO system of all the scripting languages (Moose). The CPAN is the gold standard for scripting languages (and probably everything else). The testing culture is afaik second to none. The same goes for Unicode support. And so on.
I think there's a valid argument in the fact that it's diverse enough that you could have 2 highly experienced Perl coders who nevertheless disagree about an awful lot of things[1].
In professional environments or large projects, hopefully you're got a reasonably comprehensive style guides (or better yet, perlcritic config), but for smaller things, it can be a bit of a struggle to understand and conform to the specific style in question if you're trying to contribute to something new.
I don't think it's enough of an argument to dismiss the language though, and agree that the benefits far outweigh the somewhat-pointy learning curve.
[1] The old "Everyone uses 10% of C++, but they all have a different 10%" joke, basically.
I am not posting this to bag on Perl, but just to show its fingerprint. If you find that periodic table to be funny or cool then you are a lot more likely to be happy with Perl than if it makes you shudder.
I do find it funny, but also, it's [perl 6] documentation. But I agree with your point that personal preference varies.
Just an anecdote: a startup I work with built a product on Rails 2. It has been successful beyond anyone's wildest dreams. But they have a huge mess on their hands now, and it was caused by -success- :)
You claim to really not be aware that table is for a quite different language -- Perl 6?
That point has been made many, many times.
Edit: To the cultural question, there might be a point. I might add that I don't know Perl 6, but it seems like an insane amount of cool/fun toys (macro language like lisp with an Algol-like syntax?! If they can pull that off it is incredible.) That might say something about me and Perl people. But people I admire use both vim and Windows, so I'm not certain.
I also think Perl 6 has some really cool and innovative ideas. Far from using it to smear Perl, I think it is more interesting than previous versions.
But you are in denial if you think that this chart isn't a reasonably representative cultural artifact of the Perl community and the Perl aesthetic. Perl 5 is not exactly poor in operators, and it is the same core community which produced both.
I don't think that Perl is bad. I am saying that Perl is very strongly what it is. And while some people won't like that aesthetic, I don't see why anyone should apologize for it.
I never claimed that Perl wasn't powerful ... in fact I think I stated the opposite. Where I work, Perl is the lingua franca of the ops team and they certainly get things done. But the newbies don't shoot holes in their foot ... they blow it clear off and often don't survive.
My comment above may be perceived as a bit trollish but I was also thinking about "thanking Perl for a job well done". I quit Perl for what I consider valid reasons (which you completely dismiss - My experience may be "anecdotal" to you, but it's still my experience) which you're clearly not going to agree with. But notice that I never said "you shouldn't use it". I'll even admit that some people accomplish a lot with it ... and that CPAN is almost the gold standard for everything (with the exception of Maven Central I think).
So keep using Perl if you want ... but hopefully now you'll understand those of us that will no longer use it and why it's popularity is declining (http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/content/paperinfo/tpci/index....). I expect I'll replace my current tools with something better (more productive/safer/maintainable) in the next 5 years since that's been a continuing pattern for me. What will you be using in 5, 10, 15 or 20 years?
Newbies writing code for things like (say) fiddling with directory trees should absolutely be writing unit tests, using VMs, etc. so that the worst outcome is that they waste time. Which isn't necessary if they devote some attention to properly learning the language.
I thought HN is a place where people don't take everything so seriously (or maybe I should provide some emoticons not to be taken so seriously?). And I also don't understand why people always try to lump together such comments into troll/hater/(in this case)Python-enthusiast category (ever heard of sarcasm?).
I won't explain myself, smoyer's example (except the 'hate' part) pretty much sums up what I think about Perl. And yes, I believe it's a great language, although looking from a state of development of modern languages point of view, objectively speaking, it's a bit outdated language. And therefore, in my opinion, will find less and less applications in the future (and yes, Python is and will be its main competitor in many fields).
"Take five" was actually a great jazz theme that I always compare to great programming, saying: "You want to know how the great code looks like? Listen to this."
