I’m always reminded when I get the chance to dive deep into a Perl project again that perfection is merely the precursor to more cleverness.

I’ve never known another language that is actually inspirational.

#Perl @PerlWChallenge 321 Distinct Average and Backspace Compare https://wlmb.github.io/2025/05/12/PWC321/
#noxp

#Perl @PerlWChallenge 321 Task 2: Backspace Compare
#noxp
```
perl -E '
@x=@ARGV;($x, $y)=map{1while s/[^\#]\#//g;$_}@x;say "@ARGV -> ",$x eq $y?"True":"False";
' 'ab##' 'a#b#'
```

#Perl @PerlWChallenge 321 Task 1: Distinct Average
#noxp
```
perl -MList::Util=uniq -E '
@x=sort {$a<=>$b}@ARGV;say "@ARGV -> ", 0+uniq map {$x[$_]+$x[-1-$_]}0..@ARGV/2-1;
' 1 2 4 3 5 6
```

Here is the nuweb source for the #Perl solutions and blog to The Weekly Challenge 320.

https://adamcrussell.livejournal.com/57496.html

There was a «A Language Creators’ Conversation» in 2019 with:
• Anders Hejlsberg (Turbo Pascal, Delphi, C#, #TypeScript)
• James Gosling (#Java)
• Guido Van Rossum (#Python)
• Larry Wall (#Perl)

hosted by Carol Willing (#JupyterProject).

The audio is very bad, but I wanted to share the content so I paid a human to transcribe it better than an AI could.

Here's the transcript & link to video. Enjoy!

https://ramalho.org/posts/language-creators-2019/

Arguing that the Unix Shell needs to be a better programming language is missing the point, it is a command language first.

50 years ago it was enhanced to be a high-level programming language for automating manual tasks. The limits of this approach became clear in the 1980s and Perl was created in response to that.

However, a new, better interactive Shell language that is not also a scripting language isn't really the point either.

#Perl @PerlWChallenge 320 Maximum Count and Sum Difference https://wlmb.github.io/2025/05/05/PWC320/
#noxp

#Perl @PerlWChallenge 320 Task 2: Sum Difference
#noxp
```
perl -MList::Util=sum0 -E '
$d=sum0 map {split ""} @ARGV; say "@ARGV -> ", sum0(@ARGV)-$d;
' 1 23 4 5
```

#Perl @PerlWChallenge 320 Task 1: Maximum Count
#noxp
```
perl -MList::Util=max -E '
for(@ARGV){$_>0&&++$p;$_<0&&++$n;} say "@ARGV -> ",max($n,$p);
' - -3 -2 -1 1 2 3
```

I’ve just switched an old iMac to run Linux Mint (Cinnamon) and it’s great. Starting to want to dig a little deeper into it I guess it comes with a C compiler.

Does it also have a Python interpreter? Anything else? (During a recent update the word Perl kept flashing across the screen)

I know #Python on its own is not a fast language, but I'm looking at code that rebuilds several small lists, one `arr.append()` at a time, (mumble 1920 // 16 times 1080 // 16 is) 8,040 times, and it reminds me of #Perl's read-only reputation.

Basically, no wonder you think that if this is the kind of code you're writing.

I'm no optimization wizard, but I at least try to learn the language.

Anyone using @forgejo #forgejo runners for #Perl have the same issue as me using https://github.com/shogo82148/actions-setup-perl for running perl?

My workflows fail during setup of shogo82148/actions-setup-perl, see screenshot.

The URL it fails on saying bad credentials works fine without credentials. Is this a #GitHub thing requiring something as the action is hosted there? I'm using the latest runner, cleared caches. Went back to previous version, same issue.

This used to work before...

It is #perl, and I feel like 1996 again.
https://ieji.de/@dboehmer/114427364518963295

For next 4 days #Leipzig in Germany is the center of work on the #Perl programming language.

At the Perl Toolchain Summit over 30 experts and highly involved volunteers gather to keep the language and its ecosystem healthy and appealing

Photo: Same venue in Leipzig already used at German Perl Workshop 2022. Photo from @sjn