Re: For thought: "Perl in the greater context of (me and) the software business

in reply to For thought: "Perl in the greater context of (me and) the software business

I think you underestimate the kind of problems programmers face. Though I believe that one must be able to program in any language suitable for the task at hand and not just one specific language of his choice. The fact is learning a programming language is an investment in time.

If any language can get your job done, then you wouldn't have business guys putting up 'Required a candidate with 12+ of C++ experience'. Even to the business the programming language matters.

It matters because they have to hire people, they have to pay people for a skill and they have to maintain the software for years. There fore they need something widely used, people for which can be easily hired and something that is going to hang around for a long time

When you look at it from this point, I don't think Perl is in a very comfortable position compared to a tool like say Python.

Comment on Re: For thought: "Perl in the greater context of (me and) the software business

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Re^2: For thought: "Perl in the greater context of (me and) the software business by sundialsvc4 (Abbot) on Mar 20, 2013 at 18:35 UTC
I’ve read this response three times so far without completely understanding why you’d say that I “underestimate the problem” here, when you and I seem in fact to be saying the same thing. If the project at-hand was originally and substantially developed in C++, then it is absolutely correct to say that a substantial body of experience in that language might be called-for in order to properly assuage the business risk that the person you just hired, in fact, does not know what he is doing and is too-green to know it. (May I please have a quick count of how many heads are bobbing up and down right now, please? Thank you.) I rest my case. The key word is that ... no matter what language(s) were used to develop the software, the project must have an assured service-life “for years.” C++ is a great language .. so is Perl .. so is Python .. so is PHP .. so is .. well .. `;-)` Java is out there, too .. The multi-million dollar decision was made some time ago, and it was in fact not (or maybe it was? ...) a lousy decsion, but ... “We are here now, en-ter-tain us ...” The people whom you call “easily hired” are not the ones you really want: the people who have just one-or-two languages under their belt. Monster.com will serve up people like that by the hundreds. The people you really need are the ones who can truly set a programming-language tool in context. And who can set a project in similar context, no matter what language(s) were used so-far in its construction. Indeed, the people who can un-flinchingly approach a project that was done in a language they had never seen before, and who are not bluffing in their confidence, and do it because they have encountered so many technologies before.

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Re^2: For thought: "Perl in the greater context of (me and) the software business
by sundialsvc4 (Abbot) on Mar 20, 2013 at 18:35 UTC

I’ve read this response three times so far without completely understanding why you’d say that I “underestimate the problem” here, when you and I seem in fact to be saying the same thing.

If the project at-hand was originally and substantially developed in C++, then it is absolutely correct to say that a substantial body of experience in that language might be called-for in order to properly assuage the business risk that the person you just hired, in fact, does not know what he is doing and is too-green to know it. (May I please have a quick count of how many heads are bobbing up and down right now, please? Thank you.) I rest my case.

The key word is that ... no matter what language(s) were used to develop the software, the project must have an assured service-life “for years.” C++ is a great language .. so is Perl .. so is Python .. so is PHP .. so is .. well .. ;-) Java is out there, too .. The multi-million dollar decision was made some time ago, and it was in fact not (or maybe it was? ...) a lousy decsion, but ... “We are here now, en-ter-tain us ...”

The people whom you call “easily hired” are not the ones you really want: the people who have just one-or-two languages under their belt. Monster.com will serve up people like that by the hundreds. The people you really need are the ones who can truly set a programming-language tool in context. And who can set a project in similar context, no matter what language(s) were used so-far in its construction.

Indeed, the people who can un-flinchingly approach a project that was done in a language they had never seen before, and who are not bluffing in their confidence, and do it because they have encountered so many technologies before.

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