technology or solution (was perl vs php....)

[Selena Sol]

> Once a friend asked me, "Why there are so many cool modules in CPAN but
> there's no one real application written in Perl?"  With a hard-to-hide
> gasp I said, "Maybe because most of the great applications are developed
> for internal usage."  But I knew I wasn't so sure.
>
> Say there was a real killer Perl application, would they (the enterprises)
> turn?  And if the application really satistified them I don't really think
> the would care what it's written in.

We do lots of stuff in Perl.  I can think of M1 (Telco in Singapore) and
Bumiputra Commerce Bank (Bank in Malaysia) in which we have used our perl
products quite heavily.

I can honestly say that in at least 30% of sales you are right...they don't
care about the technology, only about the solution. However, too many times,
they do care about the technology and what they want is Java.  If you do not
also have Java competency even those who would have bought perl don't even
take you seriously.