At 12:02 PM 5/27/00 -0400, Philip Newton wrote:
>On Sat, 27 May 2000, Steven Lembark wrote:
>
> > an ideal "picture" would be medium-to-small industrial or service
> > companies using perl to get ahead somehow. that gets more of a "Hey,
> > if Joe's Cesspool Reamers can use it so can I."
>
>For some reason, this reminds me of Python -- where there are, apparently,
>some companies that use Python but are not willing to say so publicly
>because they perceive their use of Python as "a competitive advantage".
Precisely what Tim O'Reilly said at TPC3 about some important banks.
Perl is in the respectability stage that Linux was in 1997, as someone put
it, they went to a bunch of companies asking the management whether they
used Linux, and the answer was No, then they asked the techies and the
answer was, Yes, but please don't tell our managers. Until it gets some
serious face time in glossy trades and mainstream media, it'll always be
the "techie tool" to the suits.
It's not so much distrust as ignorance; they don't know what Perl is
because no-one has told them yet what it means to them in their
language. If you care about getting the attention of people higher on the
food chain, you have to bring your product to their attention in the
circles they inhabit, and do it until they realize that you're actually a
player. (I'll bet Dick is kicking his tower case going, "Dammit, that's
what I've been trying to do for the last five years!" :-)
--
Peter Scott
Pacific Systems Design Technologies
