On Monday 2003-01-06 at 14:54:46 -0800, Jason W. May wrote: > I don't think Phil was suggesting that Perl 5 isn't a good option > for non-sysadmin problems. It's entirely perception - most managers > without a sysadmin background do not perceive Perl as being an > appropriate choice for application software.
I think it's perception, but I don't think it's entirely perception. People who know Perl well still don't necessary believe Perl is a great choice for the development of major mission-critical applications. I have my own doubts, even though I like Perl. There are several things about Perl 5 that make it less than ideal for major application development like that. Those who have a lot of experience with writing and maintaining Perl code, including OO code, will probably know the sorts of things I mean. It's not that you _can't_ use Perl for these things. It's just a matter of how appropriate it is, and whether there are better choices. Lisp, Scheme, Python, and even Java (yuck!) come to mind as _possibly_ better choices, depending on the circumstances. > > Regardless of the particulars of Perl 6, I don't see any activity > underway that is likely to change this perception. True enough. It's just the way it's going to be, I guess. It's a case of insiders grappling individually with internal corporate IT culture. That's not necessarily bad (just frustrating for the individuals involved! :-)) > > Java has been transformed over the last several years from a > language perceived as appropriate only for client software (applets) > to a language now perceived as appropriate for server software. There's also substance behind the perception, of course. There's J2EE, which is very impressive, just in it's sheer scope/size even! > This has occurred primarily through the efforts of Sun's marketing > department. I don't see any force acting to promote Perl as an > appropriate choice for corporate application development. > > You can substitute Python for Perl in the above. Or PHP. I don't think PHP is comparable to either Python or Perl! ;-) David
