[Catalyst] Last Chance / Last Day: Web developmentplatformcontestand Perl / Catalyst

[Nilson Santos Figueiredo Junior]

On 11/30/06, Jonathan Rockway <jon at jrock.us> wrote:
> > Thats a bit short sighted, without new developers learning Perl you'll
> > have a lack sooner or later.
>
> For example, look at PHP's community.  Huge! ... but absolutely no
> competent core / module developers.  Numbers != quality.

One thing you should use as a thermometer for technology is wether
something is being used or not in a significant scale outside the US
and main countries of Europe.

This may seem irrelevant, but software development companies such as
the ones that exist here in Brazil usually take a much more
conservative approach towards technology choice. Hence the lack of
Perl shops around here. What really bothers me, however, is Python
shops are thriving and recently Ruby (with Rails) has been the first
dynamic language to overcome the "enterprise" barrier around here.

It nearly impossible to hire Perl developers around here, that's the
main problem with using Perl as your platform of choice. I work at a
Perl-only shop and really, we'd currently hire *anyone* that isn't a
complete moron and knows Perl.

The good developers are being thought Java and there's good demand for
Java developers. The best places to work around here (i.e. where
you'll do actually interesting things) are those companies somehow
tied to good universities (the founders are teachers, and so on). All
of them either use Java or Python or Ruby. And the bad places to work
at are usually Java or .NET shops.

This situation creates a vicious cycle where people won't learn Perl
because the demand for Perl developers is small and this will ends up
hurting the still existing Perl shops.

Recently, the SPB (Sociedade Perl do Brasil - Brazilian Perl Society)
has been doing a great job promoting Perl at numerous open source
events. But, although we've seen actual results from this work (well,
at least the mailing lists activity has increased), it doesn't seem to
be enough and serious Perl usage around here is still insignificant.

I love Perl and I consider it to be the best language for almost every
sort of development. However, if I were in a management position and
needed to decide the platform my 10-developers project would be
developing on, given the context I'm in, I don't know if I'd choose
Perl since, frankly, I'd have to (personally) train at least 7 or 8 of
those 10 developers.

And on top of all that, the so-called "software factories" where mass
development is done are all Java around here and that's where the
money is, since we've got no buyers for killer Web 2.0 apps. This sums
up to a situation where even the good developers get attracted to
these places because, although it sucks to work as a code monkey,
working as the lead of them usually isn't a bad job in many of those
companies.

Of course, I don't have a freaking clue on how to proceed in order to
change this situation (if that's even possible). We've got some Perl
marketing plans at our shop that might end up bringing some attention
to Perl around here when (and if) they go into play but as we grow,
we're something diving into unknown land due to our limited resource
pool.

PS: Re-reading this email made me think it's a bit big and
non-coherent, but bear with me. ;-)

-Nilson Santos F. Jr.