[Neworleans-pm] [Nolug] RE: Perl User Group

Fri Jun 8 06:14:39 PDT 2012

I first started learning Perl about 2 - 3 years ago.  I work at an ISP and
Perl seemed like the right language for scripting.  Since then I've come to
like it for programming, too.  I'm just finishing up an application which
has 14K lines of Perl.  I was interested in minimizing the time to write it
so I figured the higher level the language (fewer lines of code), the
better.

Btw - Although most of the smaller stuff I'd done in Perl was for Linux
boxes, this is a user app to run on Windows.  I'm using Strawberry Perl and
I used pTk for the GUI stuff.  pTk is a bit stale and I did find a few bugs
in it, but generally it seems OK.  I didn't run into many problems because
of the Windows run environment.  It's a nuisance that to distribute it to
users around the office I have to send them a 10M PAR exe file and it takes
about 30 seconds to start (unpack) the first time they run it, but that's
pretty minor overall.

There are some aspects of Perl which infuriate me, however.  I like
orthogonal, well defined environments.  Perl is full of exceptions and
corner cases.  From what I've read about Perl 6 it seems to do away with
about half the things I don't like, so I'm looking forward to it.  From what
I gather, it's been in the works for about 10 years, nearly dying, but seems
healthy and on track now and is mostly completed.

Ruby didn't attract me but Python does.  Indeed, I'm still considering
switching to it.  I love the idea of indentation controlling the nesting
rather than syntax.  After all, my indentation is always correct but
sometimes I forget a "}".  :)

But one thing scares me about Python currently.  I'm not sure how stable it
is.  Ver 3 really isn't ready for prime time since only about 15% of the 3rd
party modules are v3 compatible.  Even worse, if I understand correctly, v2
modules often aren't compatible between subversions.  Ouch!  I understand
that they have announced that starting with v3.3 they are going to stop
breaking things between subversions going forward (unless absolutely
necessary).  Good.

On the other hand, from what I've seen, code written for Perl 5.8 generally
runs up through the current version (5.16).  That spans about 10 years or.
I like stability.   :)

Python has definitely reached critical mass, and Perl's popularity seems to
be waning, so I plan to keep an eye on the situation.  With Python getting
more stable and v3 getting more support vs Perl 6 coming out I think it will
be an interesting race.  

Or perhaps I'm deluding myself and I should start learning Java.  :)

John

    John Souvestre - New Orleans LA - (504) 454-0899

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-nolug at stoney.kellynet.org
[mailto:owner-nolug at stoney.kellynet.org] On Behalf Of B. Estrade
Sent: Friday, June 08, 2012 7:38 am
To: nolug at nolug.org
Cc: neworleans-pm at pm.org
Subject: Re: [Nolug] RE: Perl User Group

On Fri, Jun 08, 2012 at 11:58:38AM +0000, Dustin Puryear wrote:
> You know, I've used perl extensively for a lot of projects. I love it. But
I do kind of feel as though it were going out of fashion for "big"
solutions. It's heavily marginalized to sysadmin-level work when compared
with python, ruby, etc.

I can understand your feeling on this; but I think Perl is still the sneaky
giant in the background (much like FreeBSD).

The truth is that Perl is still responsible for generation billions (I said
it) of dollars a year in revenue. Take a look at the smattering of companies
that are sponsors for YAPC this year. Craigslist recently donated $100,000
to TPF; cPanel and Bookings.com each donated $10k.
There is a ton of money the Perl is making people these days.

	http://yapcna.org/

This is a tiny smattering of companies that rely on Perl; shutterstock.com
alone reported 120 million in revenue last year.
cPanel has a nice income stream, though even working here I have no idea how
much that is. I know they pay me every 2 weeks and keep the lights on.

Perl's strength is that since it's so closely tied to Unix systems, it's the
go to language for people who can build up an application server /and/
program their great idea.

Python is suffering greatly these days. I've always considered it the
Fortran of scripting languages. Ruby is interesting and yields a lot of
great and creative projects (e.g., Puppet, Gitorious, Redmine, etc); but
ultimately, it's still a minor player.

The deal is that those who reach for Ruby or Python, do not know their host
systems nearly as well as those who reach for Perl. Perl developers are a
lot more likely to be able to set up not just a LAMP stack, but an
application cluster that can scale.  They likely know shell and cli better
than their Python or Ruby counter parts, and this really counts when you
have to get something real done.

I love Perl, too; but my impression of it is that it's the ultimate
scripting language for Unix systems.  And I mean Perl 5. I've been around
the wringer with people about why Perl 6 (which, again, I really love) will
never replace Perl 5 because their direction is backwards. Unless Perl 6 is
approached as an incremental goal of perl (the Perl 5 blessed interpreter)
to build up to supporting, then Perl
6 implementations like rakudo will suffer the same host-os-blindness that
most Python and Ruby programmers have.

That's just my take. Perl rocks. It always will.

Cheers,
Brett

> 
> ---
> Dustin Puryear
> CEO
> Puryear IT, LLC - We see IT differently.
> Networks -  Servers - Desktops - Strategy
> 
> Direct: 225-304-6402 | Main: 225-706-8414 | Fax: 225-308-6740 | 
> www.puryear-it.com<http://www.puryear-it.com>
> 
> We're always looking for highly-motivated and energetic professionals to
join our team.
> Join our team now: jobs.puryear-it.com<http://jobs.puryear-it.com/>
> 
> From: owner-nolug at stoney.kellynet.org 
> [mailto:owner-nolug at stoney.kellynet.org] On Behalf Of John Souvestre
> Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2012 9:33 PM
> To: nolug at nolug.org; neworleans-pm at pm.org
> Subject: [Nolug] RE: Perl User Group
> 
> Hi all.
> 
> I've been getting more and more into Perl.  I see where there used to be a
user group in New Orleans.  Is it still active?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> John
> 
>     John Souvestre - Integrated Data Systems - (504) 355-0609
> 
___________________
Nolug mailing list
nolug at nolug.org