Aaron Trevena wrote:
I've been doing Perl almost exclusively since I graduated from uni in 2000 and I'm still surprised by how widely used it is - in fact I think my last few jobs and contracts have all been in places that your average Java or Python programmer would say "Perl wouldn't work" - naturally it has, hence my working there - usually on new projects and new code : High availability Aviation reporting for airlines, logistics companies and private pilots, Massive email scanning/archiving systems, and a high traffic classifieds site - all with large codebases, complex systems and high expectations for uptime, and correctness.
Unfortunately, lots of my previous corporate employers did not like the idea of advertising the use of PERL (or any other language, framework, technology), thinking that they are asking for trouble when they reveal details of their core project/platform/technology, claiming confidentiality(!?) reasons. Obviously, not placing the PERL camel (or other logo) on a website is the best security practice :-) .
Then you have politics. In a well known Sun based shop that I worked, when it was discovered that Java did not cut the deal with some major text post-processing activity and PERL gave an elegant (read: more memory consumption friendly->aka workable) solution, management was so glad that the problem was solved. When, however, we asked to publish something on a journal/website, in order to promote PERL, some shop and Sun managers were not quite happy with the idea, going as far as warning folks with disciplinary action, if something leaked on a mailing list, etc. Ehmm...Anyway.
I think it is a serious issue that not only discourages tool knowledge dissemination but it really hurts open source development in general. It is one thing to follow closed source development models and yet another to employ open source platforms to complement a closed source solution. The least thing you can do when somebody saves the day, is to acknowledge the tools employed in the solution, mention their involvement and encourage more people to engage with the technologies involved without red tape for politics/confidentiality purposes.
GM
