Wirt Atmar writes:

>Ted writes:
>
>> Of course, a Perl programmer would probably eliminate all whitespace at the
>>  end, and would likely have the string in $_ already and so would do:
>>
>>  ($last_four) = (/(.{0,3}\S)\s*$/);
>
>Lordy, there are several easy ways to tell an "ugly" language. The code above
>is one of them :-)

On the other hand, the expression above is a clear testament to advances
in data communications and signal processing technology in the last
decade. Perl was originally developed in order to take advantage of the
otherwise useless output of early PSK modems  when operated over typical
1970s telephone lines. Larry Wall's maxim, "there's more than one way to
do it," has its roots in the fact that these early modems often produced
output that was somewhat stochastic in nature, so it was important to
develop a language that would do more or less what the programmer wanted
even when the program varied unpredictably. Taken together with the fact
that early digital transmission services often charged by the character,
a terse language with a syntax modeled after line noise was a natural fit
for the times.

Today, with error-correcting modems and end-to-end digital connections,
this behavior is no longer necessary. Expressions such as the one in
Ted's example are a legacy of a bygone era of computing, a quaint and
precious reminder of just how far we have come.

-- Bruce


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