On Thu, Jun 15, 2000 at 07:12:27PM -0400, Adam Turoff wrote:
> 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?
Well, there's how Perl got into _your_ organization. ;^)
Company: We want to extend product X. What customizable hooks does
the vendor provide?
Result: There is a Perl gateway, thus available in source code.
Advantage: Organization starts off with (positive) experience of Perl
as a glue language integrating into big, complicated, useful systems.
Disadvantage: Organization's understanding of Perl builds around a
core knowledge of a particular glue module, which may be poorly-
written.
Peace,
* Kurt Starsinic ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) ---------- Senior Network Engineer *
| `. . . we don't look down on people for using subsets of Perl. |
| There are certainly enough of them.' -- Larry Wall |
