On 5/12/07, Vadim <vadim at vkonovalov.ru> wrote:
> >> untar distribution and look into the "doc" directory.
> >> many files within doc-x.xx/perl/ directory has comments like
> >>
> >>
> >> 1; # stupid perl...
> >>
> >
> > Not that many: exactly once in the file isilo.perl, but
> > indeed there is more:
>
>
> I browsed source tree to understand how SAGE integrates things together,
> and that place was among first ones which I read, so my impression of
> the entire system became worse.
The directory doc-x.xx/perl/ was wirtten 100% by
the Python developers. Nobody who works on SAGE has ever
touched that directory. It's existence is somewhat amusing -- it
is surprising that the offical Python documentation system is partly
built using Perl -- which says that for some reason
Python isn't up to the task.
> That's why I mentioned that just removing those will greatly improve
> impression.
Point taken. I'll remove those shortcited Python developer
comments from the perl directory.
>
> >
> >>> [jaap at paix perl]$ grep Perl *
> >>> distutils.perl:1; # Bad Perl.
> >>> ltxmarkup.perl:1; # Must end with
> >>> this, because Perl is bogus.
> >>> SynopsisTable.pm: # my first Perl "object".
> >>> SynopsisTable.pm:1; # This must be the last line -- Perl is bogus!
> >>
> >>
> >
> > All related to the 'feature' ending the file with "1;".
>
>
> Strictly speaking this author's remark in PM file is not fully correct,
> but regarding same comment in ltxmarkup.perl this is simply wrong.
>
> To me, such a comment indicates that author is not proficient enough
> with Perl and writes "naive" C-like code in Perl, thus giving even
> stronger point that Perl is bad.
>
> Sometimes badly written code isn't indication that the tool itself is bad.
> (texi2html, living in MAXIMA distribution, is written in a very bad style)
>
> Vadim.
>
>
>
--
William Stein
Associate Professor of Mathematics
University of Washington
http://www.williamstein.org