TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Visual Basic vs. Perl for Scripting From:Edward Savitz <sg94cshj -at- DUNX1 -dot- OCS -dot- DREXEL -dot- EDU> Date:Sat, 26 Oct 1996 14:02:30 -0400
There were a couple questions about scripting using Perl vs. Visual Basic
that I read from members.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am far from an expert user in Common Gateway Interfaces using Perl,
but I have taught Visual Basic for a few years and know of its wildfire
expansion in scripting for hypermedia, as well as other Microsoft
application not directly related to authoring (Word, Excel, Access, etc.)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
My gut feeling is that Visual Basic and its offspring (Visual J++ and the
like) will overtake the hyperauthoring market unless a powerful
feature-filled competitor overtakes it <not likely, IMHO>.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Another plus in learning the Monopoly's (MS) languages is that the
documentation is abundant albeit not always user-friendly to
non-computer-literate literati. Also, there is a ton of freeware and
shareware Visual Basic source code out there for scripting and straight
coding. They are good starting points for up-and-coming hypermedia
designers.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ed