I’ve been following the issue list for Google App Engine (just realized it doesn’t have an “s” in the official name), and the two top issues are a dead heat between Perl and Ruby in the requests to have Ruby or Perl support. Ruby, as of this writing is at 361 votes, and Perl is right on it’s tail at 347 votes. Perl until a few hours ago was pretty far ahead of Ruby. PHP is only at 70 votes, and Java is at 247 votes.
Does this mean Perl is making a comeback? Did we ever really leave Perl? As an avid Perl developer this makes me happy, as Perl can do anything Ruby or even Rails can do, and even more (Perl XS and tie-ins to C are very powerful!). All of my current Facebook Apps and OpenSocial Apps I do in Perl on an MVC Framework called Catalyst – it’s very scalable! It never made sense to me when people said that “Perl was Dead”. Is this just a reflection of the type of Audience Google supports, or is it reflective of what new media developers are actually developing in?
I’m hesitant in posting this, as it could bring more Ruby voters to the mix, but hey, let’s keep it fair. If you want to vote for Perl, click on the star here. If you want to vote for Ruby, click on the star here. Not a developer of either? Then you’re on your own. 😛
I wonder how Python would fare if it got equal treatment.
UPDATE: Within just a day after this post things have gone back to how I would expect them to be. Java has a strong lead over all the others, followed by PHP, then Ruby, then Perl. Perhaps the issues just needed a little exposure. Based on the interest, Perl is still far from dead though.
Not sure I userstand “how Python would fare if it got equal treatment.”? Python is one of the languages Google uses (besides employing Guido), it makes sense that Python is the (or at least the initial language for AppEngine).
Have you messed with Python or Ruby at all? I've known many developers that have left perl/java/php for either python or ruby and haven't looked back.
I'll concede that CPAN is a huge benefit to perl….
Not sure I userstand “how Python would fare if it got equal treatment.”? Python is one of the languages Google uses (besides employing Guido), it makes sense that Python is the (or at least the initial language for AppEngine).
Have you messed with Python or Ruby at all? I've known many developers that have left perl/java/php for either python or ruby and haven't looked back.
I'll concede that CPAN is a huge benefit to perl….
Matt, yes, I have used Rails before and every time I try I always hit a deadend somewhere that would make it much harder to scale than if I just were to use Perl and Catalyst. Many of those I've seen switch to Rails from Perl often were not willing to take the time and learn Catalyst or another MVC framework on Perl itself. Many of the people I know switch to Ruby because of the hype. Let me turn this around – have you tried Perl and Catalyst before? You may just not look back if you take the time to learn it as well.
Regarding my comments on Python, it was pure curiosity – I simply see all this as fascinating. Python obviously gets preferential treatment by Google, but how would it fare against Java or Ruby or PHP or Perl in a popularity contest like this?
Matt, yes, I have used Rails before and every time I try I always hit a deadend somewhere that would make it much harder to scale than if I just were to use Perl and Catalyst. Many of those I've seen switch to Rails from Perl often were not willing to take the time and learn Catalyst or another MVC framework on Perl itself. Many of the people I know switch to Ruby because of the hype. Let me turn this around – have you tried Perl and Catalyst before? You may just not look back if you take the time to learn it as well.
Regarding my comments on Python, it was pure curiosity – I simply see all this as fascinating. Python obviously gets preferential treatment by Google, but how would it fare against Java or Ruby or PHP or Perl in a popularity contest like this?
Not sure I userstand “how Python would fare if it got equal treatment.”? Python is one of the languages Google uses (besides employing Guido), it makes sense that Python is the (or at least the initial language for AppEngine).
Have you messed with Python or Ruby at all? I've known many developers that have left perl/java/php for either python or ruby and haven't looked back.
I'll concede that CPAN is a huge benefit to perl….