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

[Kieren Diment]

On 18/02/2009, at 5:55 PM, Dave Rolsky wrote:

> On Tue, 17 Feb 2009, bill hauck wrote:
>
>> I'm trying to put together a project to rewrite a job tracking  
>> database currently running in FileMaker.  The functionality and  
>> scope of the job tracking system has changed so instead of throwing  
>> more money in a proprietary, closed system that requires a costly  
>> application on each desktop I'm suggesting writing it as a web  
>> application with Perl & Catalyst.  The only problem is that I've  
>> been told we would have to use Java & Struts since it's our  
>> "corporate standard" for web applications. Perl, ironically, is  
>> used in quite a few places in the company, mainly in utility  
>> scripts.  However, since we don't have anyone whose job title is  
>> "Perl developer" we can't use it for web applications.
>
> This is hardly unreasonable.
>
> I've worked at a number of smaller shops where we were developing a  
> Perl-based app. If a developer had decided that they wanted to throw  
> together some important tool in Java (or Python or Haskell or  
> Smalltalk or ...), that would have been problem.
>
> The investment in a language is bigger than just the programmers,  
> even. You have build & deployment tools, automated testing setups  
> (you do, don't you? ;), sysadmin knowledge, packaging  
> infrastructure, and so on.
>
> Some of that may be language-agnostic, but often a lot of it ties  
> into the language and its tools.
>
> Once you've made that investment, it makes sense to stick with it.  
> Just because Catalyst and Perl are great tools for webapps doesn't  
> mean that they're the _right_ tool at your job.

Yes indeed.  To balance that, management also need to work with the  
idea that rules are not dogmatic but designed for practical purpose.   
In my (academic - research and practical) experience, the larger the  
organisation, the more likely they are to believe dogma is more  
important than pragmatism, especially if you go through the official  
IT channels.  If you go through the unofficial channels this may  
change, depending on the structure of the organisation, and the  
quality of your unofficial channels.