Overview

Perl

Stacks4.3K

Followers935

Votes575

GitHub Stars2.2K

Forks602

JavaScript

Stacks392.2K

Followers284.0K

Votes8.1K

JavaScript vs Perl: What are the differences?

Introduction

JavaScript and Perl are both programming languages commonly used for website development. While they share some similarities, there are several key differences between the two.

Syntax: One notable difference between JavaScript and Perl is their syntax. JavaScript uses C-like syntax, making it familiar to programmers of languages like C and Java. On the other hand, Perl has its own unique syntax, which is known for its flexibility and power. This syntax is often described as more concise and readable than that of JavaScript.
Type System: Another significant difference is their type systems. JavaScript is a dynamically typed language, meaning that variables do not have explicit types and can change their type at runtime. Perl, however, is a strongly typed language, which requires variables to have a specific type that cannot be changed easily.
Object-Oriented Programming: When it comes to object-oriented programming, JavaScript and Perl have different approaches. JavaScript is a prototype-based language, where objects can be created from existing objects. Perl, on the other hand, supports both classical and prototype-based object-oriented programming. This means Perl has a more flexible and versatile object-oriented system.
Regular Expressions: Perl is well-known for its excellent support for regular expressions, which are powerful tools for pattern matching and text manipulation. Perl provides extensive built-in support for regular expressions, making it easier to work with complex string patterns. While JavaScript also supports regular expressions, Perl's capabilities in this area are considered more advanced.
Usability: JavaScript is widely regarded as a more beginner-friendly language compared to Perl. Its syntax and concepts are relatively easier to grasp, making it a popular choice for newcomers to programming. Perl, on the other hand, has a reputation for being more complex and harder to learn due to its flexibility and extensive feature set.
Community and Ecosystem: The JavaScript ecosystem is vast and thriving, with a large community and numerous frameworks, libraries, and tools available for various purposes. JavaScript is heavily used in web development, making it well-supported and widely adopted. Perl, while still used in certain domains, has a smaller and less active community and a narrower range of available resources.

In summary, JavaScript and Perl differ in terms of syntax, type systems, object-oriented programming approaches, regular expression support, usability, and community/ecosystem. While JavaScript is more beginner-friendly and has a larger community, Perl offers more flexibility and power in certain areas, such as regular expressions.

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Advice on Perl, JavaScript

Cezary

Mar 26, 2022

Review

PyCharm + Python + Flask + Jinja2 is enough to build web server/ajax and JavaScript + JQuery (maybe React). You can write small easy application but also extreme high scalable application.

I know Java but it need 4x time more code and code is not clear (too much forced use of @decorators) - too complex and takes more memory :)

Remember if you code in Python it is easy to code in Java but if you code in Java you must understand that Python is much more flexible and powerful - also easier to learn.

114k views114k

Comments

Paul

Researcher at Working on it

Mar 24, 2022

Needs adviceon

HTML5

CSS 3

Java

Hey everyone, I have a matrix chart drawn in HTML5/CSS 3 dominantly using CSS grid. I would like to add interactive features and am unsure about the best tool. My programming knowledge is limited to 2 semesters of Java in college, so I'd have to learn the language as I go. I am open to anything, but the selected languages would be useful in future projects.

Here are the features I am attempting to add to the site linked as my blog:

Assign over 120 attributes each to over 400 elements (probably in a DB)
Procedurally position elements in a matrix chart based on user-inputted filters (filtering and searching)
Procedurally position matrix elements based on attributes weighted by user-input
Change style of elements based on user input (highlighting)
Allow saving matrix chart states to be revisited or shared
Provide a user-friendly interface for users to submit the above input
Build several columns or matrices that are separate but related and seamless to the viewer

274k views274k

Comments

Prakhar

Mar 22, 2022

Needs adviceon

Python

TensorFlow

JavaScript

I am unhappy. When doing my research, I heard Python is useless. Data science is an unworthy field thanks to TensorFlow, and web scraping has also become pointless since the introduction of the PWA. Since PWAs are only frontend, I feel forced to learn JavaScript, and to ditch Python. I love Python with all my mind, it's simplicity, conciseness, and easiness as a tool. Here are a few questions:

Should I forget Python and move on?
Are there any PWA alternatives to JavaScript/TypeScript. I've been thinking of using Python for WASM and use HTML+CSS for the DOM to create the PWA. Is this possible?
Why is JavaScript such a pain in the butt
What's the point of me learning Python if it's not useful for web development?

115k views115k

Comments

Detailed Comparison

Perl	JavaScript
Perl is a general-purpose programming language originally developed for text manipulation and now used for a wide range of tasks including system administration, web development, network programming, GUI development, and more.	JavaScript is most known as the scripting language for Web pages, but used in many non-browser environments as well such as node.js or Apache CouchDB. It is a prototype-based, multi-paradigm scripting language that is dynamic,and supports object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles.
Statistics
GitHub Stars 2.2K	GitHub Stars -
GitHub Forks 602	GitHub Forks -
Stacks 4.3K	Stacks 392.2K
Followers 935	Followers 284.0K
Votes 575	Votes 8.1K
Pros & Cons
Pros 72 Lots of libraries 66 Open source 61 Text processing 54 Powerful 49 Unix-style Cons 4 Messy $/@/% syntax 3 No exception handling 2 No OS threads 2 Bad OO support 2 "1;"	Pros 1670 Can be used on frontend/backend 1497 It's everywhere 1163 Lots of great frameworks 899 Fast 746 Light weight Cons 24 A constant moving target, too much churn 20 Horribly inconsistent 16 Javascript is the New PHP 9 No ability to monitor memory utilitization 8 Shows Zero output in case of ANY error

What are some alternatives to Perl, JavaScript?

Python

Python is a general purpose programming language created by Guido Van Rossum. Python is most praised for its elegant syntax and readable code, if you are just beginning your programming career python suits you best.

PHP

Fast, flexible and pragmatic, PHP powers everything from your blog to the most popular websites in the world.

Ruby

Ruby is a language of careful balance. Its creator, Yukihiro “Matz” Matsumoto, blended parts of his favorite languages (Perl, Smalltalk, Eiffel, Ada, and Lisp) to form a new language that balanced functional programming with imperative programming.

Java

Java is a programming language and computing platform first released by Sun Microsystems in 1995. There are lots of applications and websites that will not work unless you have Java installed, and more are created every day. Java is fast, secure, and reliable. From laptops to datacenters, game consoles to scientific supercomputers, cell phones to the Internet, Java is everywhere!

Golang

Go is expressive, concise, clean, and efficient. Its concurrency mechanisms make it easy to write programs that get the most out of multicore and networked machines, while its novel type system enables flexible and modular program construction. Go compiles quickly to machine code yet has the convenience of garbage collection and the power of run-time reflection. It's a fast, statically typed, compiled language that feels like a dynamically typed, interpreted language.

HTML5

HTML5 is a core technology markup language of the Internet used for structuring and presenting content for the World Wide Web. As of October 2014 this is the final and complete fifth revision of the HTML standard of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The previous version, HTML 4, was standardised in 1997.

C#

C# (pronounced "See Sharp") is a simple, modern, object-oriented, and type-safe programming language. C# has its roots in the C family of languages and will be immediately familiar to C, C++, Java, and JavaScript programmers.

Scala

Scala is an acronym for “Scalable Language”. This means that Scala grows with you. You can play with it by typing one-line expressions and observing the results. But you can also rely on it for large mission critical systems, as many companies, including Twitter, LinkedIn, or Intel do. To some, Scala feels like a scripting language. Its syntax is concise and low ceremony; its types get out of the way because the compiler can infer them.

Elixir

Elixir leverages the Erlang VM, known for running low-latency, distributed and fault-tolerant systems, while also being successfully used in web development and the embedded software domain.

Swift

Writing code is interactive and fun, the syntax is concise yet expressive, and apps run lightning-fast. Swift is ready for your next iOS and OS X project — or for addition into your current app — because Swift code works side-by-side with Objective-C.