First and foremost I want to thank you all for your input. We are
continually trying our best to promote Perl. Yes, our motivations are
somewhat self serving but we also believe in Open Source...it isn't just a
profit center for us. I am now working with two wonderful Perl programmers
and have observed first hand the beauty and power of the language (in my
previous position at O'Reilly I only observed that from a distance....now I
am working with a team that uses Perl every day, all day).
All that being said, one of the things that is happening around Java is
that bazillions of companies are using Java to create products which are
entering the marketplace en masse creating buzz. I for one want to
encourage more and more companies to create a business model which uses,
sells, supports, or whatever Perl in whatever way the business community
will support. And the more of these that take off, the more buzz will be
generated around Perl.
For Linux, in Oct. of 1998, it was the Red Hat Marketing Machine (really
the marketing genius of Bob Young), and the David and Goliath story that
caught the eye of the popular press and a tidal wave of publicity was
created about Linux and away it went. Lots of new companies were formed,
lots of investment money became available, which in turn was invested in
marketing departments, which in turn fed the hype, the stock market
followed which continued to feed the hype until things imploded in Dec. of
1999.
Perl doesn't have all of the above. No core of companies (only one) that
are attracting lots of investment capital, which in turn feed the marketing
and PR machines, which in turn generate a lot of buzz, which in turn.....
The technical merits of Perl are obvious but that will always only carry it
so far. I just would like to see Perl (and by association the whole Open
Source philosophy of developing code) continue to have its day in the sun.
We will continue to work hard promoting Perl but even a company the size of
O'Reilly is minuscule compared to the marketing muscle of Sun or IBM. But
between ourselves and AS that is all Perl has got for better or for worse.
Sure would be nice if more jumped on board.
--Madeline
