I think it [Perl] is still quite common in the bioinformatics field though!?
That's true - many day-to-day tasks in bioinformatics are more or less plain-text parsing [1], and Perl excels in parsing text and quickly using regular expressions. "My" generation of bioinformaticians doing data cleanup and analysis (20-30) uses Python, sometimes because plotting is nicer, the language is easier to get into, it's more commonly taught in universities, or other reasons - people older than that normally use Perl.
Thanks for the insights! Also here, this comment would make an interesting addition to a "Feedback" section at the end of the article to give people a broader view on this topic. May I have your permission to post your comment below the article?
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That's true - many day-to-day tasks in bioinformatics are more or less plain-text parsing [1], and Perl excels in parsing text and quickly using regular expressions. "My" generation of bioinformaticians doing data cleanup and analysis (20-30) uses Python, sometimes because plotting is nicer, the language is easier to get into, it's more commonly taught in universities, or other reasons - people older than that normally use Perl.
Both BioPython and BioPerl are extremely useful.
[1] Relevant quote from Robert Edgar: "Biology = strcomp()" from https://robertedgar.wordpress.com/2010/05/04/an-unemployed-g...
Thanks for the insights! Also here, this comment would make an interesting addition to a "Feedback" section at the end of the article to give people a broader view on this topic. May I have your permission to post your comment below the article?
Of course you have my permission :)
(Minor typo corrections; "Biopython", not "BioPython" and "strcmp" not "strcomp". I co-founded Biopython. We chose to avoid CamelCase.)
Sorry about that, that's what happens in caffeine-less typing - I sadly can't fix it at this point anymore, edit is disabled now