Re^3: On the scaleability of Perl Development Practices

[BrowserUk]

something as simple as a JSON-aware guestbook backend for an AJAX website

I've been programming for a few decades, and Perling for 6 years, and that sentence means almost nothing to me. I'm vaguely aware that AJAX is roughly the web equivalent of "raw mode" for http, but I've not the vaguest clue what JSON is. And I've never wanted to write a guestbook. (Nor contribute to one!)

And I'll never understand the need of Perlers to want everyone else to use Perl?

I love my 20 year old Japanese sports car. It is economic to run, 40mpg when driven with a modicom of care, low service costs and barely a sign of rust after 20 years of non-garaged daily use. And yet has enough performance and handling to provide a few thrills on those rare occasions I get to take somewhere I can utilise it safely. But I never felt the need to encourage all my freinds to get one, never mind strangers. Indeed, part of the original reasoning for buying it was the small degree of exclusivity it provided.

If other people are happier to use $Otherlanguage, why does that bother you?

[jdrago_999]

I've been programming for a few decades, and Perling for 6 years, and that sentence means almost nothing to me. I'm vaguely aware that AJAX is roughly the web equivalent of "raw mode" for http, but I've not the vaguest clue what JSON is. And I've never wanted to write a guestbook. (Nor contribute to one!)

For example's sake, a guestbook is much simpler (in general) than, say, a shopping-cart website with payment processing, stock-level monitoring and wishlists.

Another simple example might be a greeting-card website. The example is contrived - don't get hung up there.

JSON is "JavaScript Object Notation" and is in many cases the preferred format for transmitting data from the server to JavaScript running in the browser, since parsing the data is as simple as eval()ing it in runtime (much easier and typically faster than traversing an XML document). It looks very similar to Data::Dumper's output.



And I'll never understand the need of Perlers to want everyone else to use Perl?

I would like to see more people use Perl because:
• It is Free.
• It is very expressive compared to other languages.
• We typically don't have to purchase or license extended functionality, as is often the case with .Net or Java.
• More mindshare means more ideas are pooled together in the long run, further benefiting all who use Perl.
• Perl6 would do well to be met by as large an audience as possible.
• The stigma of Perl as difficult, esoteric or arcane is not a merit, but a detraction.

If other people are happier to use $Otherlanguage, why does that bother you?

I'm not bothered by others' happiness with $OtherLanguage. What I am bothered by is the prospect that my favorite language today is the COBOL (or SmallTalk) of tomorrow. Sure, *I* think it's great and *I* find it to be very expressive, but if $Employer has invested in $OtherLanguage and feels they can't find another Perl programmer in the future for maintenance, I will end up coding in $OtherLanguage instead. Even if it's not the right tool for the job.

I've worked on enough Java or .Net projects to know that's just not what I want to do 5 or 10 years from now. So, anything I can do now to ensure Perl's increased popularity in 5 or 10 years is worth it to me.