[Catalyst] Why I chose Perl and Catalyst

Tue Feb 13 15:03:43 GMT 2007

--- "Hermida, Leandro" <Leandro.Hermida at fmi.ch> wrote:

> 
> Hi everyone,
> 
> Do not want to start any kind of language war or
> anything - just need
> some concrete, objective opinions and advice.  We
> are starting a brand
> new web application + services + database project
> and my boss ("those
> who make the decisions") asked me as project lead
> why I am chosing the
> Perl/Catalyst/DBIx::Class/CPAN stack instead of
> Java/J2EE/Some Java
> framework or .NET/C#/Microsoft.  In the case of this
> project since we
> are starting from scratch there is no initially
> evident reason (like in
> the previous example where there was already
> existing code that would
> influence the decision).  From my experience with
> Java and C# we could
> do it using those languages.
> 
> Any insight or advice as to why would one prefer a
> Perl stack over a
> Java or .NET one?  It seems that a lot of people
> (including my boss)
> think that Perl cannot compete when one is trying to
> do "enterprise"
> applications.  In some ways (please tell me if I am
> wrong) it might be
> true because Perl exhibits very few rules and
> standards and very little
> built-in control over how you write your code when
> compared to the Java
> and C# paradigm, syntax and compilation rules.  This
> seems to make it
> much more difficult when writing very modular,
> reusable OO code in a
> distributed team of developers.
> 
> In general are there people out there using Perl for
> some things and
> then finding the need to step to a more controlled
> and standardized
> language like Java, C#, others??

One thing that I prefer about Perl is how it's let me
grow as a developer.  I was able to use it to do
useful and serious applications right from the start,
but as I've grown in my knowledge, I didn't outgrow
Perl.  Particularly today, with strong MVC frameworks
like Catalyst, Moose for OO development and a choice
of ORMs (I'm particular to DBIx, but others also get
good feedback and have communities) you can find that
Perl has most of the enterprise goodies.  So if you
need control and structure you can enforce that. 
Moose + Catalyst can give you that, if you use them
well and with best practices in mind.

CPAN will offer you a ton of modules for integrating
with just about any existing system.

Also we find Perl integrates well with enterprise
application management software.  We use doxygen
(http://www.stack.nl/~dimitri/doxygen/) for
documentation along with Jira
(http://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/) and SVN for
source control.  Those package play nice together. 
Some of out developers are using Eclipse with a Perl
plugin and find that works pretty well.  Personally
I'm still a VIM man.

For better or worse, we find that we can get Perl
developers with lots of experience for less than Java
developers of equivalent years, although that might
just be here in NYC where a lot of the Java folks work
in the highly lucrative financial industry.

There are disadvantages of course.  It will be easier
to find Java or .NET people, although the quality of
the talent is varied.  Perl is still more 'DIY' in a
lot of ways.  It appeals to a slightly wilder group of
developers, at least in my experience.  I think if I
was running a very large IT shop I'd seriously be
looking at Java with Struts or similar, because of the
staffing issue.  For small or medium shops, or
consulting groups that can set their own size goals,
this won't be a problem.

One last great thing about Perl is the community.  I
enjoy hanging with Perl people more than with any
other language developer groups.  That's highly
subjective of course :)

Good luck with your strategic planning.

--john

> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Leandro
> 
> 
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Jon [mailto:jon+catalyst at youramigo.com] 
> > Sent: Tuesday, February 13, 2007 14:08
> > To: catalyst at lists.rawmode.org
> > Subject: [Catalyst] Why I chose Perl and Catalyst
> > 
> > Following the discussion late last year about Perl
> not being 
> > selected as the language of choice by those who
> make the 
> > decisions, I thought I should write up my
> experience (as the 
> > CTO who gets to make the
> > decisions) as to why we chose Perl, Catalyst,
> DBIx::Class for 
> > our system platform.
> > 
> > I've finally done that - here it is for anyone who
> has an interest:
> > 
> > "Perl + DBIx::Class + Catalyst - Our Technology
> Choice"
> > 
> >
>
http://software-reviews.summer-snowstorm.com/content/view/17/27/
> > 
> > 
> > -- 
> > 
> > Jon
> 
> _______________________________________________
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> 

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