Pure Perl developer

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Re: Pure Perl developer by adrianh (Chancellor) on Jul 03, 2003 at 09:36 UTC
I do the majority of my paid development work in Perl. Web applications, intranets, database integration merging, etc. There is a fair bit of Perl out there running commercial applications, it's just that it tends to be infrastructure and server-side stuff so is not particularly visible. That said I do write code in other languages, and so should you (if you don't mind a bit of friendly advice :-) Over the last fifteen years I've seen the language-of-choice go from Lisp to C to C++ to Java. Who knows what's next (maybe Perl6 :-) I've lost count of the languages I've coded in over the years - and I still try and learn a new language/skill a year (Ruby this year - most funky). If you just have one skill you're dooming yourself, because I can guarantee that at some point in the none-to-distant future you'll see that skill disappear into the mists of time. Be flexible. Know more.	[reply]
Re: Re: Pure Perl developer by nite_man (Deacon) on Jul 03, 2003 at 09:51 UTC
adrianh, thanks for your reply Of course, I don't limit to myself only Perl. I started programm on PL1 and assembler on mainframes, then I delveloped on Delphi, PHP, Progress, Java. Now I programm only on Perl (mod_perl, Embperl and Mason) because it needs for my main project. I'm agree with you that developer should be flexible and know more and more. But, I think, developer should use the majority one programm language or technology for getting better expirience and knowledge to be PROFESSIONAL in his area. -------------------------------- SV* sv_bless(SV* sv, HV* stash);	[reply]
Re: Pure Perl developer by valdez (Monsignor) on Jul 03, 2003 at 10:13 UTC
I work for a small company located between Bologna and Modena in northern Italy and we develop mostly using Perl. Our biggest client is a company that sells meal vouchers and our software manages nearly the entire life cycle of those vouchers. We build also all Perl e-commerce and IVR systems. In the past I've also developed programs running under mod_perl, mostly content management systems. Ciao, Valerio	[reply]
Re: Pure Perl developer by barbie (Deacon) on Jul 03, 2003 at 11:43 UTC
For the last 4 years I have been coding Perl exclusively. Previously I was a C/Unix developer. The applications so far have been very web orientated, along with Richard Clamp and Dave Thorn, we designed and developed TheRegister MkII (MkIV is being ported to Bricolage) among other things. I am currently working for MessageLabs, who provide email secuirity services. The main services we provide are for Anti-Virus and Anti-Spam, both of which are written in Perl. I'm currently involved in the apps that communicate with the scanning towers around the world, which is also written Perl. A friend recently remarked that I must be one of the lucky few in the UK, who hasn't had to be resort to coding any Java or .NET applications. And long may it continue. -- Barbie \| Birmingham Perl Mongers \| http://birmingham.pm.org/	[reply]
Re: Pure Perl developer by dreadpiratepeter (Priest) on Jul 03, 2003 at 12:56 UTC
I find that it is hard (and inneffective) to be a pure-anything developer these days. First, by limiting yourself to one language, methodology, etc. you are limiting your ability to grow and to learn to solve new kinds of problems. More importantly, in today's environment much of the work depends on knowing multiple languages. For example in many of my Perl projects, I also use JavaScript¹, XML and XSLT, SQL and PL/SQL, Lexer and Parser Languages (these days it's Parse::RecDescent, it used to be Lex and Yacc). Plus ELisp off and on to make my environment better. Finally, with the market the way it is, I find myself worried less about finding the perfect Perl job and more about finding any job. ¹I will risk the downvoting here and say that JavaScript is a great language. Now that the browser people are approaching common ground with the DOM, you can do amazing things with JavaScript. It does for the client end what Perl does for the server end. -pete "Worry is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it doesn't get you anywhere."	[reply]
Re: Re: Pure Perl developer by nite_man (Deacon) on Jul 03, 2003 at 15:40 UTC
I find that it is hard (and inneffective) to be a pure-anything developer these days. I'm agree with you, but I mean another thing. Now, I develop a billing system on Perl (I use Perl, Embperl, mod_perl, SQL, HTML, JavaScript) but I'm not sure that when this project will be finished I will develop next project on Perl. I'm affraid that I should be develop on Java or something. It's good to know many programming languages and technologies but is it possible to be a professional in all of them? -------------------------------- SV* sv_bless(SV* sv, HV* stash);	[reply]
Re: Re: Re: Pure Perl developer by chanio (Priest) on Jul 04, 2003 at 03:42 UTC
Piccasso was once asked what was the reason that he used to change so much his style of painting. And he said that the only reason was addapting to the special object of every painting... I believe that a real artist of programming should think the same way. One cannot be impossing a language just because it is the one in fashion, or because it is the one that we feel more comfortable with. When I saw what LINUX was made of, I returned to my previous concept of programming. Not the crap that is said of programming nowadays. Perl is also a fountain of ideas and resources! Much like the LINUX spirit. We have to be lucky to know one real programmer and get the real idea of what is living as such. There is nothing of the commercial propaganda in it! I swear.	[reply]
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Re: Pure Perl developer by bm (Hermit) on Jul 03, 2003 at 12:47 UTC
Could you tell me, please, are you a PURE PERL developer and, if it isn't secret, what kind of projects do you develop? I am a pure Perl developer - at work anyway. My role in the configuration management team of a very large technology company. We use a pure Perl solution to implement our inhouse development and release processes on top of various CM systems. We also use a pure Perl solution to manage our compilation proceseses for various large software products. ... and for this, Perl does the job wonderfully well - if only because we use multiple platforms! I have worked for two other companies doing a very similiar thing, so in my experience, Perl is frequently used to implement custom CM and build processes.	[reply]
Re: Pure Perl developer by chunlou (Curate) on Jul 03, 2003 at 20:08 UTC
There are surely "pure" Perl developers around (i.e., "pure" when they have choice to use other languages). Nonetheless, in large corporations, there are driving reasons (not necessarily technological ones) why Java and C/C++ would be preferred over Perl. For C/C++, it could simply be legacy reason, so many codes have been written in C/C++ in the past. Besides, few people would be blamed for writing in C/C++ per se; they might even look more sophisticated and intelligent that way. C/C++'s also simply frighteningly fast (unless you write in assembly or machine code). If, say, you write high performance video game, C/C++ is pretty much your only practical choice. For Java, it's the biggest marketing success for a programming language in recent history. It has two effects: One, many corporate executives were persuaded to use Java (or VB) after reading some marketing material or some pseudo technical reviews. It's also politically safer for an executive to go with "brand name." (Perl is not a "brand name" for many business folks. You could easily tell from many corporate meetings. The expensiveness of many Java tools also help make Java a preferred choice among business folks--merely consumer psychology.) Two, these days there're quite a bit of other-career-turn-programmer people or people who simply program on an as-needed basis, quite a few of them turned to Java (or VB) by its reputation (such as "ease-of-use," "write-once-run-everywhere," etc.). (Courses and certificate programs also help newcomers feel easier when making a career change.) Java's "do everything in Java" culture may also help glue people to itself. On the technical side, Java was indeed syntactically well-designed. Project managers do prefer a language that's more self-documentary and leaves less room for obfuscation, especially since it's never easy to ask every human being just to write in one style voluntarily For Perl, there're good reasons why Perl programmers don't go "pure Perl." Perl has a "there's more than one way to do it" philosophy. If one has this mentality within a language, it's not a surprise when they have such an attitude across language as well and therefore be more open to other languages as possible "ways" or options. Perl also does tend to attract highly-skilled programmers (for whatever reasons). For a skilled individual, there's probably less need and desire to just stick to one language but use whatever most appropriate for the problem at hand.	[reply]
Re: Pure Perl developer by IOrdy (Friar) on Jul 04, 2003 at 01:48 UTC
I'm working as a pure perl developer at the moment but I think this will be my last for two reasons. 1. perl jobs (at least in my experience) seem to earn between $10k to $20k (AUD) less a year than .NET or Java programmers. 2. Its becoming harder to find perl jobs, I get an email from seek.com.au every day but I only see a perl job about every 6 months or so. I love perl but $10k AUD a year is most of a new motocross bike every year. As for the company I work for, they are like Amway but evil (a multi level marketing company). So as you can imagine I do a lot of DB, tree, creditcard and rewards processing all of which is written in perl.	[reply]
Re: Re: Pure Perl developer by perrin (Chancellor) on Jul 04, 2003 at 21:37 UTC
My experience does not agree with yours. Pay is about equal for Perl and Java jobs if you are working at an established company with a decent IT budget. There are probably more low-level jobs out there that involve Perl, but once you become a senior developer it's about the same in any language.	[reply]
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Re: Pure Perl developer by Anonymous Monk on Jul 03, 2003 at 14:39 UTC
Aren't you the same person who wrote the well know plagiarized reviews Automating Windows With Perl and Cross-Platform Perl, Second Edition ? Given your precedents, what are you going to do with these answers? Sell them as your profound insight?	[reply]
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Re: Pure Perl developer by danb (Friar) on Jul 03, 2003 at 22:20 UTC
Oh yes, I am definately a PURE PERL developer. I would never develop perl that isn't PURE. In fact, whenever I come accross impure perl code, I rewrite it using Acme::PURE. As for the projects I use it for, right now I'm working on PURE-ina puppy chow. -Dan ;-)	[reply]
Re: Pure Perl developer by cleverett (Friar) on Jul 03, 2003 at 20:16 UTC
I do web applications so I also do a little HTML and JavaScript. But I do online advertising systems and prepackaged business/statistical reporting packages, that sort of thing.	[reply]
Re: Pure Perl developer by nite_man (Deacon) on Jul 07, 2003 at 07:28 UTC
Dear brother and systers, Many thanks for your replies and votes (both plus and minus). Your comments were very interesting and useful and helped me to uphold my faith. Positive votes indicated that my topic was interesing for you and negative votes indicated your interest too, but in this case my opinion was different with your. It's nice because the truth is born in the disputes. Many thanks, my friends. -------------------------------- SV* sv_bless(SV* sv, HV* stash);	[reply]

Pure Perl developer

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laziness, impatience, and hubris
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