(OT) Re: Productivity and Perl

[FoxtrotUniform]

I have a feeling that I'm going to get pounded for this, but it's really starting to get on my nerves:

Yes, our language doesn't have a large corporation backing it. Our language doesn't necessarily have the prestige of many others. But when push comes to shove, if you need something done, Perl is often a fantastic choice.

Can we please lay off the "tragically misunderstood underdog" victim mentality? Sure, plenty of people think that "Perl's just for CGI" or "Perl's sort of like VB, right?" or outright disdain Perl because it's free software/open source/insert your favourite jargon here, but when people start organizing cruises dedicated to a language's user base, I think it's hit a certain level of industry acceptance.

No large corporation backing Perl? What, O'Reilly, the most respected practical computer publisher on the planet, doesn't count? Sure, they didn't develop the language, and they aren't charging for it, but still....

--
The hell with paco, vote for Erudil!
/msg me if you downvote this node, please.

:wq

[Aristotle]

Most of the automated testing needs at Microsoft are handled via Perl scripting. (Why'd ya think they support ActiveState so closely? Out of altruism?)

I agree, the victimized underdog pose has gotten old.

Makeshifts last the longest.

[Ovid]

First: I did not downvote your node (I gave it a ++ because you raised a good point). Second, while you may be tired of "they have a better PR firm" comments, that doesn't make them untrue. And no, I don't think O'Reilly counts. How many O'Reilly books sit on the PHBs shelf? On the other hand, how many "Learn IT Management through short articles" type of magazines are there? Many, if not most, of those magazines are filled with puff pieces.

One of my best friends worked for many years with XXX, the PR firm for YYY (I deleted the names because it dawned on my that dropping them might not be wise from a litigation standpoint), and it was fascinating to hear how they worked. First, the PR person assigned to an account would learn what the selling points of a product were and, if the PR person was competant, might learn about similar points of competitors products. Then, much of their job would be scanning trade publications for "unfavorable" articles and demand equal space, or send out puff pieces about the product in question (which often get printed verbatim - Wall Street Journal is often guilty of this, I understand) and try to arrange interviews. When you see the VP of Acme Corp being interviewed, quite often that interview was set up by an anonymous PR person calling the magazine and saying "we have someone you might want to talk to."

It was also fun listening to tales of large corporations threatening to pull advertising if unfavorable reviews were received, or sometimes the advertisers would receive advance notice of unfavorable reviews so they could pull their advertising for an issue or so. This goes on all the time and I think it's fair to say that Larry and Friends don't have the desire, or money, to play that game.

Oh, and I'm a little embarrassed at how paco got out of hand :)

Cheers,
Ovid

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