How to deal with Perl Demons

[wombat]

I've been having some difficulties at work lately. It stems from the IS admin, a nice fellow of a man. I won't use his real name. I'll call him J'oe, for that's a contraction of John Doe, after all.

J'oe is a good man. Happy, cheerful, caught in the line between Geek and Mundane. (Or Muggle if you're a Potter-ite) J'oe however does not like Perl. I've tried to show him the happiness I find from Perl. I design the webpage at my work, and have built a few trinkets and geegaws in the blessed language. I recently asked J'oe if he would approve a $500 departmental expense to get a cheap Linux box, so that I could move the Perl code off my machine at home (A mere 486). J'oe didn't go for it. He said he really didn't want to install a Linux machine on the network. I don't think J'oe embraces the penguin. He told me I could use ASP for my dynamic webpage coding. And third party software like "Tango" for the DB processing and CGI programs. How appropriate that a Perl demon deals in asps.

I told J'oe that I would do things his way. I want to learn ASP anyway and this will be useful. But oh my fellow monks. How, I ask you, how do we best approach those who do not see the blessed light of PERL? It's my language of choice. It's easy to use and it's free! I have yet to see an www.aspmonks.org site.

How can we help people like J'oe? How can we get them to "hug the penguin"?

May all your perls be round and shiny.
~W

[ZZamboni]

You could try sharing with him some real-corporate-world Perl success stories. There is an article at oreilly.com about UniCredito Italiano, an Italian Bank that is using Perl. You could also check out O'Reilly's Perl success stories, which contains more of those.

That said, be aware that liking Perl is not the same as liking Linux. I love Perl, but I consider Linux to be just another version of Unix. I routinely use Solaris, Linux, NEXTSTEP, OpenBSD and MacOS, and use Perl under all of those. Maybe J'oe is one of those who immediately associate Perl with Linux, and because he doesn't like Linux (for whatever reason), he extends the dislike to Perl. Show him that Perl can be useful under almost any other platform, and maybe he will see it with new eyes.

--ZZamboni

[maverick]

It is quite possible that J'oe has had his mind clouded by the FUD of the Dark Side. He speaks as one who's thoughts are not really his own, reguritation the tired old mantra of the Proprietary.

One recourse young Jedi is bring your 486 to work and let him behold the Power of The Light Side.

Fear leads to a closed mind, closed mind leads to closed source, closed source leads to MS.

/\/\averick

[Corion]

There is always the wonder of ActivePerl (from ActiveState) which works under Win32 (Win9x and NT) and which can be plugged into IIS or run standalone (also as CGI under any Win32 webserver).

That way J'oe could keep his Win32 environment and you could use Perl for your scripts - even in ASPs, if that's a matter.

Note that the Penguin is not the be-all end-all thing, and many people are rightfully reluctant towards the Penguin because of its followers - be careful and know the Linux-Advocacy-Howto if you think about promoting Linux. But I think promoting Linux is plain the wrong path. Perl and administration is always the question of the right tool for the task - and Linux is just a vessel Perl runs on, just like Win32.

[nivlac]

Step 1: Buy a copy of the Camel book. You should already have a copy, but buy a new copy, trust me.
Step 2: Give new copy of book to the ignorant. Tell them to read the book.
Step 3: If they read the book, and are convinced, Kaloo Kalay Happy Day they're a convert. Skip to the last step.
Step 4: If they read the book and are not convinced, or they refuse to read the book, take the book back. Grip the book strongly, and procede to beat some sense into them with the book.
Step 5: Return to Step 3 as needed.
Step 6: Congratulations, you've got a Perl server. Code to your hearts content. Denpending on the actions taken, calling 911 might be a good idea.

[lindex]

Sounds like you have a case of "admin is an admin for the money". This is a matter that is bothered me for a while now, there are so many ppl in the industry now a'days (I say with only 5 years xp, hehehe) that are not really into what they are doing. I think it should be a policy that hence forth no company shall hire an admin that does not have at least a 5 machine personal network at home, and neglects friends/girlfiends/family to sit at a computer and be a nerd. Any person (in my judgement) that is this type of admin would have to know the wonders of perl & unix.

So my advice for you, talk to you boss, have him fire the admin and hire someone who knows the power of perl and unix :)


But then agian, thats just my opinion :)



lindex

/****************************/
  [e-mail], [e-mail]
    http://jason.gost.net
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[BlueLines]

I have yet to see an www.aspmonks.org site

you may see www.aspmonks.com though...

nooky:~$ whois [e-mail]

Chris Cormier (ASPMONKS-COM-DOM)
   27 Shadyridge Pl
   Kitchener, Ontario N2N3J1
   CA

   Domain Name: ASPMONKS.COM

   Administrative Contact:
        Chris Cormier  (CC425-BR)  [e-mail]
        Chris Cormier
        48 Chapeltown Cr.     Bsmt.
        Scarborough, Ontario M1W3A7
        CA
        Phone- 416-891-2918 
        Fax- 
   Technical Contact:
        Chris Cormier  (CC425-BR)  [e-mail]
        Chris Cormier
        48 Chapeltown Cr.     Bsmt.
        Scarborough, Ontario M1W3A7
        CA
        Phone- 416-891-2918 
        Fax- 

   Record updated on 2000-03-15.
   Record created on 2000-03-15.
   Record expires on 2001-03-15.
   Database last updated on 2000-08-23 03:53:13 EST.

   Domain servers in listed order:

   NS.BULKREGISTER.COM           216.147.43.234                
   NS2.BULKREGISTER.COM          216.147.1.164



BlueLines

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[randomblue]

I'd start nice and easy..


Drop hints here and there. Magazine/Web articles on cubicle walls. Comments like "Ah, I'll just write a Perl script to do that". Make Perl a household name.


Emphasize that Perl is happily at home on a Win32 machine. Maybe he won't agree to a Linux box, but will agree to Windows running Apache and Perl. There are times when we have to compromise.


Bring in your 486 and show him how much power you can squeeze out of such a measly machine. Say "heck, I couldn't even run Win98 on it, and look -- it's a webserver/mailserver/etc. all in one. Let's see you do that with Win2000!"


Do learn ASP so that you can competently point out how Perl is better. ASP might come in handy anyway.


And, hey, nothing works better than plain, old, drop-by-drop brainwashing. Day by day, we're subverting one of the religious NT zealots in our department to say "Yah! Linux roolz!" with progressively less sarcasm, using the abovementioned techniques. Good luck! :o)

[Anonymous Monk]

Why the gnashing of teeth over ASP? Use ASP and set <%@ Language=PerlScript %>. PerlScript is easily available from ActiveState. ASP and Perl play together very nicely. Much better than that gawd-awful VBScript.