On Saturday 2001-12-29 at 11:16:18 +0000, lester@... wrote:

> I use Netscape eMail for the list - All the previous bits
> just pop up when I select the correct sort - That and I have
> answered previous questions from him.

Fair enough. I myself don't have any previous messages to look back
over :-(

> > By the way, if you've been programming for 30 years, it's time to
> > learn Perl! ;-) It's hard to imagine that it couldn't save you
> > thousands of hours of work, like it has for me over just the last two
> > years (and it has done that for me as a helper language, and not even
> > as my main programming language).
>
> I simply have not had a need to use anything other than the
> tools I currently use.

That may be true, as I have no great idea of the type of work you do.
My comment was based on the general usefulness of Perl for a wide
range of tasks, including, but by no means limited to, "programmer's
sidekick" :-)

It may also be true that, like me three or four years ago, you just
don't know what Perl could do for you. A lot of people couldn't see
the use of fax machines, either, not to mention that new-fangled email
thing... ;-)

But I don't want to waste ib-support bandwidth on evangelising Perl!
It just has that effect on some people! Of course, populating an
InterBase database with data from just about any source, is a perfect
job for Perl! There! Relevance!

> All my data is in FB/IB format now,

Yes...

> imports from other systems while slow are deminishing as we

Only a one-millionth part of what Perl can do, of course.

> replace the source with an IBO powered equivalent. All
> reports go out via FastReport.

QuickReports not fast enough? :-) Of course, generating fast, ad hoc
reports in, say, plain text or PostScript, is a walk in the park for
Perl. For simple reports that you needed _yesterday_, it'll beat any
GUI report generator you'd care to mention (I can often generate a
one-off report almost as fast as I can type a SELECT statement).

> All built in C++/Builder for
> the last ten years. What do I need perl for?

Nothing at all, if you are like I was three years ago :-) Three years
ago I didn't know I'd be wanting Perl to generate up to 200,000 lines
of object oriented Delphi code for me based on complex, changing
specifications. I didn't know I'd be wanting to make dozens of complex
editing changes to over half a million lines of Delphi code. I didn't
know that I'd be wanting to drag data from the Internet, process it,
and make appropriate inserts into database tables located in disparate
RDBMSs. I didn't know I'd have to write a high-performance, reliable
TCP/IP sockets-based server in a week. I didn't know I'd have to
process text files supplied to us in many different formats, and use
the data to populate databases, or to generate SQL scripts for running
at remote sites. I didn't know I'd need an easy and quick way to
process XML data on its way to and from databases. I didn't know I'd
want a flexible and efficient automated build system to beat the brain
dead one that Delphi provides. I didn't know I would need to write a
complex, high volume data analysis system with colour business charts,
scatter graphs, descriptive statistics and Excel spreadsheet output for
a once-off job over a period of weeks, where the equivalent Delphi
program would have taken months. I didn't know I needed to pre-process
thousands of image files before inserting thumbnails of them into a
Firebird database. And you can believe me when I say that there were
many more things that I didn't know I needed, that Perl provided on a
platter... so you can see why that little four letter word brings a
twinkle to many an eye... some say it's better than sex (I wouldn't go
that far -- because it's only three letters).

> > > Pointers please because I could not find them - I had a late
> > > night none computer related <g>
> >
> > Good for you! ;-) How was it?
>
> Must have been good - I can't remember <G>

Tch, Tch! ;-)


Cheers,

David Trudgett