On Thu, Sep 15, 2011 at 02:03:14PM +0100, Peter Corlett wrote: > On Wed, Sep 14, 2011 at 08:14:03PM +0100, Simon Wilcox wrote:
> > PHP solved the problem of making web-based applications easy to install. > > Something that all the 'big brains' of Perl still haven't solved. Ease of > > installation leads to ease of adoption. Hence why PHP has hammered Perl > > into the ground for web apps. > > That's because said 'big brains' don't have an incentive to optimise the > language towards solving that particular problem. Want them to have an > incentive? The Perl Foundation awaits your large donation! I'm not sure that that's actually going to work. TPF does quite well at spending donations when it has a good idea who to pay (ie who would be competent for the task, and is available to do it). Historically, as an outside observer, it's looked to me like it's not very good at identifying how to spend a targeted donation if it doesn't already have an idea *who*. Instead, it politely and patiently waits for the right "who" to contact it. So, [obvious plug] donating to the Core Perl 5 Maintenance fund *works*, because Dave and I (and possibly others) are keen to earn money from it [Donate here: https://secure.donor.com/pf012/give Evil page "source" prevents me from even finding out if there's a way to anchor to the "Perl 5 Core" section, which is below the fold] details here: http://www.perlfoundation.org/perl_5_core_maintenance_fund Whereas a hypothetical "solve the easy to install fund" is likely to sit there, looking pretty, but not actually solving anything, unless there's also a suitable victim lurking, ready to pounce with a proposal that needs funding. Nicholas Clark