Bug#678307: perl: Description does not well reflect what Perl is

[Niko Tyni]

On Thu, Jun 21, 2012 at 10:52:05PM +0100, Dominic Hargreaves wrote:
> On Wed, Jun 20, 2012 at 08:42:42PM +0200, Kjetil Kjernsmo wrote:
> > The current description of Perl in the Debian perl package doesn't
> > well represent what Perl is about these days. Improved descriptions
> > have been bouncing around in the Perl community, may I suggest one
> > written by Chris Nehren? Here is a better description:
> > 
> > 
> > Perl is a highly capable, feature-rich programming language with over
> > 20 years of development. Perl 5 runs on over 100 platforms from
> > portables to mainframes. Perl is suitable for both rapid prototyping
> > and large scale development projects.
> > 
> > Perl 5 supports many programming styles, including procedural,
> > functional, and object-oriented. In addition to this, it is supported
> > by an ever-growing collection of reusable modules which accelerate
> > development. Some of these modules include Web frameworks, database
> > integration, networking protocols, and encryption. Perl provides
> > interfaces to C and C++ for custom extension development.
 
> Do any other list subscribers have opinions on this?

Not much. I doubt many people base their idea about what Perl is
on the long description of the Debian package. I'm not very attached to
the old description, although I do see some historical value in it.

Feel free to do what you think is right :)

FWIW, while not strictly relevant to this, #484681 has some discussion
on the 'perl-base' long description that may give some perspective.
-- 
Niko