Re: Tim O'Reilly on Perl

[radiantmatrix]

Hm, the answer reads a lot like Tim thinks people only program in one language. I'm not saying he believes that, just how it sounds.

Yes, Ruby and Python have been gaining in popularity; that's great, I think, as more languages are better. But, I also think that there's a lot of crossover. I know I prefer Perl to any other language (just personal taste), but I'm learning Ruby (for Ruby on Rails) and Python; the former sounds like a great fit for some of the DB-based applications I work with, and the latter is a requirement for maintaining some code I've been handed at work.

Still, I haven't abandoned Perl in favor of these; in fact, learning Python has made me appreciate Perl even more (because Perl is more like how I think, and Python is very unlike how I think; totally subjective opinions, here, folks). I don't see how having growth in other languages reduces the relevance of Perl.

Besides, I have had more clients approach me as a result of my Perl skills in recent months than ever before. If anything, Perl may be less "exciting" than it used to be, but it is becoming accepted as a cross-platform workhorse for automation, prototyping, and web development.