I've been writing in perl for just over a year. I was a developer in embedded controls, but had an idea for a website and some free time so started learning perl. I had a strong C++ background so understood OO pretty well. I chose Perl because I had heard so much about it. My first site was pure scripting, all code & html in one file. It was such a mess but a great learning experience.
After switching jobs, I had the opportunity to take a "java for the web" class and learned the MVC way. I was eager to apply this to my web project, however it took me quite a while to figure out how to write OO with Perl. In fact, I really struggled for several weeks. I looked around on the web for a while, tried to study the modperl apache site's examples, but just couldn't derive a good code example; I understood OO, I knew that perl could do OO and I couldn't find design patterns to go to the next step. It wasn't until I happened to run across "Learning Perl Objects, References, and Modules", by Randal L. Schwartz that I started to develop a web pattern for implementing MVC with perl. If it wasn't for that book, I probably would have given up. Even with that, it took me a while to figure out how to write good constructors. I looked plenty, but I just couldn't seem to find the right info on the web. Taking a step back, after that java class, I considered Java struts. I like much of the language syntax, such as the "." vs "->" notation. However, the prospect of setting up Tomcat on top of learning Apache by myself seemed daunting. In addition, Java Struts seems overkill for most applications. 5 months ago, I changed jobs again and now work in a PHP only shop. What I miss from Perl with PHP is how broad the language is. There seem to be no limits to Perl. The syntax is easy and extensive. I can do unix tasks and web task. And there are so many reliable modules available via CPAN. PHP has pear, but its not nearly as extensive. The other thing I miss about perl when programming in PHP is the arrays. In PHP, there are associative arrays; I uses complex sets of anonymous hashes and arrays all the time in perl, but it's harder to do the same thing in PHP. And I find dereferencing harder too. And of course, perl regex is 100x better than PHP's limit string matching and grepping. What I like about PHP over perl is the ease of variable declaration. I feel I have to use strict with perl, I would like the ability to not have to put "my" in front of every new variable. Probably 1/4 of my errors when debugging pages for the first time are undeclared variables. Seems stupid and I try to be thorough, but it still happens and it's a nuisance. My biggest complaint for perl for web apps, however, is the templating. I haven't found a template module in perl that rivals Smarty templates in PHP. What's with this crazy loop structure in HTML Templates? Why can't I just iterate over an array without having to put it in a crazy anonymous array thing. I can access any array element with ".". Smarty plugin's are great. They help with creating select drop downs, date drop downs. I can capitalize, count, strip template variables within smarty. There seems to be so much more I can do with Smarty than with HTML::Template. Maybe I just missed all that stuff in the documentation but again, I didn't find it. Also, it's much easier to include a code snippet in php than in perl. Today, Perl is still my personal favorite language to code for web/unix task. However at work, I am implementing MVC in PHP 4 much like I did with Perl using the basic OO capabilities available in 4. Interface functions don't help in the web apps I do (small - medium) so I don't see to much need for us to move to 5. But that's another topic. That's my experience so far with perl vs PHP vs Java so far. greanie --- Boysenberry Payne <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I guess I'm still considered a mod_perl / perl > newbie. I started > learning perl 6 months > ago in anticipation of translating a CMS (Content > Management System) I > wrote in PHP. > > I considered Python, and C++ as alternatives. C++ > was over kill and > would require > way too much development just to get going (why > reinvent the wheel if I > don't have to.) > Python, seemed too similar to PHP for my tastes. I > don't like being > "forced" to use > someone else's coding conventions unless I know > there are valid reasons > for it. > With what I read about Python's white space issues, > I thought it might > be more > tedious, rather than easier to maintain my 50+ files > of code. > > Once I started looking into perl I was blown away. > Not only has perl > been the "swiss > army knife" of system administration for well over > 10 years, but > mod_perl blows the > socks off of php. > > So for my particular project I couldn't find a > better solution. > > I think the hardest part about learning perl (coming > from developing in > php for 5 years) was the odd mix of syntax. It's a > mixture of a couple > of > languages. Because I was new to unix and shell > syntax it was a bit of > time before I started to feel comfortable. > Considering 70% of the > internet > is run off of *nix flavored servers it's not a bad > skill to have. > > The benefits of having moved to perl from php are > too many to count. > Just the efficiency of perl's string manipulation > cut my code down by > up-to 50% in some cases. Perls abilities to be used > both procedurally > as well Object Oriented makes it easy for me to use > it which ever way > is most useful for my task. > > Moving from PHP to Perl has been the smartest move > I've made. Our > code is more secure (we use a proxy system to keep > it completely > separate > from our client's file server.) Our system is more > stable and > responsive. > And my code is 100% easier to maintain. > > Although I could have used Python or even stuck with > PHP and > accomplished > most of what I'm doing, it would take more time, and > wouldn't be nearly > as much > fun. In my situation (building a CMS without > funding, etc.) I don't > think I would > have made it this far without being inspired as I > was by perl, mod_perl > and > all that they can do. > > Did I mention CPAN? > > My hat is off to the Perl/mod_perl community for > giving such an > opportunity. > When in history has it been so bright? > > Boysenberry > > boysenberrys.com | habitatlife.com | selfgnosis.com > > On Feb 16, 2006, at 7:41 AM, Clinton Gormley wrote: > > > It seems to me that a lot of people new to > mod_perl and to Perl have > > joined this mailing list recently. > > > > And this is during a period when popular opinion > (amongst those who > > know > > no better) seems to regard Perl as antiquated. > > > > I'm delighted that new people are joining. > > > > My question is, what prompted you? What made you > choose Perl above > > Java/.Net/Python/Ruby etc etc > > > > Do you have experience of those languages? What > appeals to you about > > Perl? And how do you find your community > experience/support compared to > > the other languages you know? > > > > clint > > > > > > > > > > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
