In many ways, Perl is viral. Here are some vectors of infection
I've seen over the years:
1) Company: We want to do X. Let's hire a consultant for advice.
Result: Consultant says Perl works for X, use Perl.
Advantage: Consultant moves around, spreading Perl.
Disadvantage: A lot of consultants don't advocate/know/use Perl.
No one left behind to actually use Perl.
2) Company: We want to do X. Let's hire someone with experience.
Result: Employee says Perl works for X, use Perl.
Advantage: Employee stays around, promotes Perl within the
company.
Disadvantage: Employee leaves, unmaintainable code is left,
project is scrapped, Perl is avoided.
Employee was brilliant and leaves, employer
can't find a suitable replacement, left with
the feeling that "You can't hire Perl programmmers".
3) Company: We want to do X. Let's find some free code to do it.
Result: Some random package downloaded of unknown quality.
Advantage: Could be written in Perl. Could cause Perl
consultants/programmers to be hired.
Disadvantage: Could have been wwwboard.pl
Those are the three that come to mind most easily. I'm probably
underselling the advantages and overselling the disadvantages.
Any other experiences out there?
Z.
