Programmers by Accident
Traditionally, a wide gulf has separated computer users from computer programmers. Users traditionally see computers as a means to an end, and learn only as much about them as they need to in order to solve their immediate problem. Users tend to use trial-and-error, or outright guesswork, rather than reading the documentation. Programmers, on the other hand, tend to see mastery of the computer as an end in itself. They abhor guessing, and think nothing of absorbing hundreds of pages of documentation at a single sitting. They spend years perfecting their craft, training themselves to think logically, to break down problems into manageable tasks, to code cleanly and clearly.
Because of the Web, though, those traditional distinctions between users and programmers have been blurred. The Web makes it easy for someone who isn’t a programmer to create useful collections of computer-based information. It also creates an upgrade path, a sequence of manageable steps that a programming novice can follow, with real benefits achieved at each stage. This is very different from the traditional route to becoming a programmer, in which one had to learn a great deal before being able to do anything useful.
A major factor in this upgrade path is Perl, the programming language of choice for web content creators. Perl is designed to be usable by mere mortals, people who haven’t spent years in a computer science lab. One of the design criteria that guided Perl’s creator, Larry ...