[Catalyst] RFC: The paradox of choice in web development

[Andrew Rodland]

On Sunday 15 February 2009 03:04:04 am Dan Dascalescu wrote:
> > First:  Perl jobs are not decreasing.  While there is not a ton of 'Buzz'
> > around perl anymore... If you look at actual jobs stats:
> >
> > http://tiny.cc/kkcCM
> >
> > Perl is above all the others by some margin.
>
> Short version: that graph is misleading. Click the "Relative" link.
>
> Longer version: Yes, Perl is above the rest by some margin, thanks to its
> history. There are existing Perl applications that need to be maintained,
> and some momentum that keeps the demand for Perl jobs going. But click the
> "Relative" link in the graph, and see the percentage growth for Ruby jobs.
> It skyrockets when compared with both PHP and Perl.

Of course it does. Look at the "absolute" graph. The 2005 figure for Ruby is, 
to within the resolution of the graph, zero. It's not hard to have ten 
thousand percent growth from zero! The absolute graph would have you believe 
that the huge "threat" is from Ruby which has gone from zero to perhaps a 
quarter as big as perl, while the absolute graph makes it clear that the 
real "competition" is from the black line representing PHP. And yet if 
everyone were to abandon PHP tomorrow in favor of Perl it *still* wouldn't 
make a blip on the relative graph. Why? Because the relative graph is 
braindead.

Andrew