@Uncle Jesse:

"I’m speaking as an outsider here - maybe you Rails people can listen and learn, rather than making fun of us and your own who criticize"

Listen and learn what? Great insights like "Ruby on Rails is weak right now, it’s breaking apart from the inside.". You've written nothing of substance, you decree that Catalyst is "much more Robust, more scalable package" with nothing to back it up.

Your writing remind me of those people who Zed was criticizing. How ironic.

oh shutup, again, your comment contains no substance - show me some statistics to prove your point and I'll start paying attention toyou.

uncle_jesse, you're correct...it's not dead, just morphing into COBOL. It'll enjoy a nice long slow death curve, but have no doubt, the language has jumped the shark.

Andy, I admit - I was wrong on the approval by testers. See my comment above - I still think CPAN is one of the most comprehensive and complete tools available for external module development within a single language. It still has and encourages a very strong suite of testing tools that to me, encourage non-scalable, non-portable code from being released. I feel another blog post coming on to correct this - you are right, testing is not required for a module to be submitted to CPAN. It is however a tool that accompanies development on CPAN, and there is a fairly large number of testers that give feedback on each module that is submitted. I'm not sure any of the other libraries of tools like CPAN out there are as complete.

openwookie, I'm speaking as an outsider here - maybe you Rails people can listen and learn, rather than making fun of us and your own who criticize. From what I've seen, despite whatever tools Rails provides to encourage good development, those developing the Rails platform do not have near the experience those on the Catalyst platform have in developing robust software applications.

ohshutup, I fail to see the substance of your comment - how about some constructive reasons why you think Perl is dead?

"Have you seen the process it takes to get a module on CPAN? There are hoards of testers that have to approve it first."

What makes you think that? It's completely untrue, and I'm wondering what gives you that perception, because it's something I'd like to work against if it's widespread.

Get over it dude. Perl is dead, and will never again be seen as viable in the eyes of CTOs. Take it from me...I am one. You sound like Dwight (from the Office) in his infamous speech:

Dwight's Speech: BLOOD ALONE MOVES THE WHEELS OF HISTORY! [pause] Have you ever asked yourselves in an hour of meditation - which everyone finds during the day - how long we have been striving for greatness? [bangs fist] Not only the years we've been at war – the war of work – but from the moment as a child, when we realize the world could be conquered. It has been a lifetime struggle [bang’s fists again] a never-ending fight, I say to you [bangs again] and you will understand that it is a privilege to fight. WE ARE WARRIORS! [applause] Salesmen of north-eastern Pennsylvania, I ask you once more rise and be worthy of this historical hour. [even bigger applause as Dwight gives a horrible sounding laugh] No revolution is worth anything unless it can defend itself. Some people will tell you salesman is a bad word. They’ll conjure up images of used car dealers, and door to door charlatans. This is our duty to change their perception. I say, salesman – and women – of the world... unite. We must never acquiesce, for it is together... TOGETHER THAT WE PREVAIL. WE MUST NEVER CEDE CONTROL OF THE MOTHERLAND...

@Uncle Jesse:

Perl + CPAN is not unique in this regard. Many ruby gems come with a full suite of functional + unit tests.

If you want your patch to Rails to be accepted, you must provide tests in your patch or it will be rejected. It also needs at least 3 people to peer review and approve your patch, and a core contributor has the final say if it gets accepted or not.

That's still my point however. Is there a platform you are aware of out there with such a strong testing and support system as CPAN provides?

"Have you seen the process it takes to get a module on CPAN? There are hoards of testers that have to approve it first"

As a cpan module author, I can only say that's wrong. Anyone can create an account and can upload any old rubbish without any testing or peer review.
Yes, modules get a lot of test reports - but only once they've already been uploaded.

openwookie, you've got a great point there. I would still like for Catalyst to be seen among CTO's and the like as a viable option. Unfortunately, publicity is the only way to make that happen. Yes, there will be some n00bs in the mix, but the culture Perl fosters is one that keeps those from being at the forefront. Have you seen the process it takes to get a module on CPAN? There are hoards of testers that have to approve it first - I have yet to see a platform with as strong an infrastructure as the Perl community and CPAN to handle such publicity.

Actually, Perl's been there before - Perl at one time was the most widely used platform on the internet. Perl at one time was the RoR or PHP of today. I'm simply saying it's time for Perl to take back its turf.

"Ruby on Rails is weak right now, it’s breaking apart from the inside."

Not at all. Zed has not gotten along with some members of the core team for quite a while now. He just went public with it in his usual over-dramatic fashion (note: zed has never been a part of the core team)

"My message to the Perl community is this - step in, do something! Promote the heck out of Catalyst now"

Ok, you totally missed the point of the article. Zed's rant was largely to do about how 'promoting the heck' out of Rails has attracted all sorts of newbies to the platform (thus turning it into a ghetto). It has also attracted all of the wannabe entrepreneurs who are looking for a silver bullet to solve their development problem. Would you want the same to happen to Catalyst?