[za-pm] is Perl on the decline?

[Anne Wainwright]

Hi,

Well, is it?

I was surprised (perhaps I wasn't) when I logged onto the za-pm
list-server to find that of course it is the ubiquitous Mailman which
is written in Python, and although it is a very capable package I
thought we might be supporting home industries  ;) There are a number of
mailing list managers written in perl (sympa, dadamail). Can't comment
on whether we have the best one, but I'm happy with it anyway.

Looking on the ubuntu software centre app, entering 'perl' brings up 19
apps which is reduced to 13 if we omit editors, ide's, and perl-specific
tools.

entering 'python' brings up 99 apps reduced to 72 on the same basis.

OK, figures up or down one or two, but that's a big difference. There
are an awful lot more general applications written in Python than perl
available for a linux box.

Conversely, under IT & computer the local new book site loot.co.za
lists 338 books under 'perl' and 207 under 'python', but of course Perl
has been around a _lot_longer and many of the perl titles are of
long-standing.

I am (very slowly) developing an app in perl/Catalyst. Needing
something up and running faster than I was going I found a RAD front -
Kexi - to do the CRUD dirtywork. No suprise, buttons & stuff can have
actions coded in Python or Ruby, but not perl! That's the KDE offering,
the Gnome offering - Glom - also allows coding in Python but not in perl
(or Ruby for that matter).

This result could of course be skewed by the sort of programming that
each language is typically used for. Perl is probably way ahead in the
administration stakes, but why has it lagged behind in general useage?
Is this a technical issue?

Do we have a new generation of programmers brought up on Python and not
perl? At the local university Python has been the starter package for
IT for some years. They are very M$ oriented and students are not
much exposed to linux and hence perl.

I could go on, but wondered what the views on this from the
professional world are.

bestest
Anne