[Libreoffice-bugs] [Bug 130911] Policy on converting Perl scripts to Python

[bugzilla-daemon at bugs.documentfoundation.org]

https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=130911

--- Comment #10 from Stephan Bergmann <sbergman at redhat.com> ---
(In reply to Jussi Pakkanen from comment #0)
> As per the discussion in https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/c/core/+/89262
> 
> I would like to propose that converting Perl scripts used in Libreoffice can
> be ported to Python without needing any special rationale. The reasons for
> this are:
> 
> - more people know Python than Perl
> - new developers (i.e. anyone under 35) do not know Perl at all
> - Python is a lot more readable in any case
> - Python has builtin functionality for a lot things where Perl needs to call
> external executables (like zip, tar), reducing dependencies
> - Converting all Perl code to Python is (in practice) a requirement for
> removing Cygwin as a build dependency on Windows 

I am not convinced that the above benefits necessarily outweigh the costs,
though, or that any actual costs of conversion are at least distributed fairly
in the developer base.  For example, I haven't counted the hours I had to spent
on
<https://git.libreoffice.org/core/+/13aebf3dc75a73b381fb8d72c9788a8ee5aa911c%5E!/>
"Missing dependency",
<https://git.libreoffice.org/core/+/9831d806ca7223058f74c61f4e1254c84464014d%5E!/>
"Fix desktop-translate.py",
<https://git.libreoffice.org/core/+/009db597027890ade07d31674c740ae0fc432f87%5E!/>
"Only process with brand.pl the *.keys and *.desktop files", and
<https://git.libreoffice.org/core/+/3f38a57a4ed8515dd145aea46ed697f101409c2f%5E!/>
"Properly escape desktop file string values" after the change from comment 5. 
(Though to be fair, the last two of those commits helped to find and address
pre-existing issues.)

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