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Trolling Usenet to Spread Perl
- During the late 1980s, I spent a lot of time "trolling" Usenet groups like
comp.unix.questionsandcomp.unix.shellto spread the word about the brand-new Perl programming language. - I made it a personal goal to answer as many Unix questions as possible using Perl.
- Inevitably, users would post requests saying something like: "Would someone be kind enough to provide me with a script (sed? awk? no perl please) that I could run on several hundred files?"
- Whenever I saw the "no perl please" disclaimer, I would write up a response showing:
- First, the standard shell/awk/sed solution.
- Second, the much shorter (and usually much faster) Perl solution.
- By showing the dramatic contrast in speed and readability, I successfully recruited a massive number of early Perl adopters this way!
These facts are as Randal recalls them, but much time has passed for most of this. If you find a factual error, please email realmerlyn@gmail.com.