In message <199501121049.DAA02871@sidney.novatel.ca>you write:
->"Perry E. Metzger" <perry@imsi.com>  wrote:
-> > Ditto. Perl isn't a luxury any more -- its a basic tool. If just one
-> > thing could be installed by default, I'd make it Perl.
->
->However, I used to do all of my sys_admin type duties without it, and
->I still manage to survive quite well without Perl.
->
->I don't agree with "Perl isn't a luxury any more -- its a basic tool".

While I like perl for some jobs, I do my daily sysadmin work without it.
The jobs that seem to require perl because of their complexity
are often better handled by compiled programs, even those written in "C".
And the daily routine work that is required is better done with 
awk/grep/sh/sed when it has to run on multiple platforms, for i am not 
willing to fix perl so it can run on every platform in our multiplatform
environment.

So perl seems to me not to be a luxury, but it also is definitely 
not a basic tool.

And I don't see perl being neccessary to bootstrap an OS. (except the HURD?)

Gruesse
       Oskar

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 					Tragbar ist, was nicht herunterfaellt.
						    oskar@zappa.unna.ping.de
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