Hi Gabor,
On Sunday 15 Aug 2010 08:33:09 Gabor Szabo wrote:
> On Fri, Aug 13, 2010 at 7:55 PM, Joel Limardo
>
> <joel.lima...@forwardphase.com> wrote:
> > Do we keep a list of current companies that are using Perl anywhere? I
> > just noticed that Sony Support appears to be using Perl:
> > http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/model-home.pl?mdl=HIDC10
>
> There is an old and out of date list on TPF wiki
>
> https://www.socialtext.net/perl5/index.cgi?companies_using_perl
>
> but I don't think there is a real added value in such list. As Jan pointed
> out almost every company uses Perl in one form or another.
>
> I think it would be a better form to gather companies that support
> Perl in one form or other.
> e.g. by letting and encouraging its employers to work on perl core or
> CPAN modules
> during work hours or by sponsoring various Perl events or by
> sponsoring other aspects of the Perl community.
I agree. I think that a list of all companies that use Perl and do not admit
that would first-of-all be a problem to compile, and secondly, may be
defamation. I think it may be the "NASA uses Python" vs. "NASA uses COBOL"
syndrome - NASA (or whoever) uses a lot of stuff (including COBOL and Fortran
on old VAX machines), but is not going to boast about using, say, COBOL,
because people hate it.
What we can do is try to make Perl "hip" again (like Su-Shee noted in her
post) by building a certain unique and non-defensive Perl image, that will
make a lot of companies admit that they are using Perl.
One of the problems with Perl is that back in the old WWW fever, when early
versions of Perl 5 were practically the only sane thing to use, people wrote a
lot of Perl 4-like code in Perl 5 due to ignorance (I know I did.). Many of
these ancient "CGI" scripts matured into CPAN modules or alternatively some
popular FOSS or commercial or popular Internet-facing web-sites. However,
those that extensively use Perl are now more well-entrenched sites like
Amazon.com , livejournal.com , typepad , etc. which are very popular but not
considered "web 2.0" (bleh!) or hip enough. (And based on a vague feeling, I
think Google is starting to become well-entrenched too.). Fashions come and
later become well-entrenched and everyone still "does" them, but no one is
proud of it because they are no longer "hip".
If we can make Modern Perl 5 appeal again to younger audience, perhaps by
building an elitist image of a quirky language for "rockstars" who can
appreciate a steep learning curve, but followed by great expressivity and the
power and robustness of CPAN afterwards, and also a vibrant community, we
maybe can accelerate the Perl renaissance, and get more people to admit that
they use Perl.
For a while it seems that Vim was losing esteem among the hipsters in favour
of TextMate and similar editors, while now it may seem that it has become the
new "it" editor among them again, so technologies *can* make a perceptive
comeback, although many of them don't.
Regards,
Shlomi Fish
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