From: Tim Hammerquist <tim@...>
Date: 2002-08-24T10:59:54+09:00
Subject: Re: Converting Perl scripts to Ruby?

[ the points below are included to clarify
  to Ruby users who may not know Perl.     ]

Peter Hickman graced us by uttering:
[ snip ]
> This in Perl
> 
> for(my $x = 0; $x < scalar(@accounts}; $x++) {
>     $accounts[$x]->interest =
>         ($accounts[$x]->holding * $interestrate);
> }
> 
> becomes
> 
> accounts.each {| account | account.interest(interestrate)}

Why haven't you created a Perl object for this and defined an
#interest method for it as well?

> Ok there are other ways of writting that loop in Perl but they
> all introduce an unnecessary variable such as $x even if it is
> the implicit $_.

I'm not sure what you're gripe is here.  Ruby's iterators also
use an extra variable.  That's what appears between the ||'s.

But for the sake of accurate equivalents, let's use _idiomatic_
Perl.  You've neglected to show this much cleaner version:

    foreach my $x (@accounts) {
        $x->interest = $x->holding * $interest_rate;
    }

And using implicit use of $_:

    foreach (@accounts) {
        $_->interest = $_->holding * $interest_rate;
    }

or an OO version:

    $_->interest($interest_rate) for @accounts;  # see [*]

At the end of all this, Ruby still looks (and works) cleaner than
any Perl example thus far.

[*] 'for' and 'foreach' are aliases for the same element. Thus,
    you can write:

        foreach (my $i; $i < $max; $i++) { ... }

    as well as:

        for my $x (@arr_of_stuff) { ... }

[ snip ]
> Even good OO Perl tends to contain much 'paperwork' that Ruby
> handles for you. You will never have to bless something again.

Very true.  I can't say this enough: Perl's OO model is a
gigantic ball of bovine excrement, even if it does do some nifty
tricks.  If the rest of Perl weren't so useful, I'd have nothing
to do with it.

Correction: Perl5's OO model sucks popsicles.  I'm anxious to see
the improvements on it in Perl6 (as any change to Perl5's OO
_must_ be an improvement).  =)

HTH
Tim Hammerquist
-- 
If someone stinks, view it as a reason to help them, not a reason to
avoid them.
    -- Larry Wall in <199702111730.JAA28598@wall.org>