tinman, there is another item that I think is worth mentioning. I've coded in a wide variety of languages, and I can tell you that Perl was the easiest to learn. Not because of syntax, but because of the documentation, the ability to find online help, and most importantly the functionality of online communities... especially Perl Monks! I have not found another resource that has been as beneficial to my learning of the Perl language. I've never found one for C++, or Java, or JavaScript, or COBOL, etc. They just don't have the kinds of documentation, and assistance that the Perl community has going for it. That in itself is a HUGE advantage.
Say for example this company goes with Java and has a problem with a part of a program. The only help they will find is their development team, and their paper resources that they have on hand. They surely don't have a resource online, that they would be able to post snippets of code and within minutes, be able to have different resolutions. Or be able to go to a bank of modules like CPAN to see if it has already been done.
Again, your target audience is going to drive the way you cater your report. Heck, you could use this node itself to show the benefits of Perl. "Sure Mr. Suit. I wrote this report and posted it on Perl Monks, a Perl online community, and my fellow Perl coders from around the world helped me edit the report so I wasn't missing points!" That in itself speaks volumes.
Please keep us informed, and make sure that you reply with a final draft of your report... I know it will be of major benefit to other people as well.
Snippets of code should be wrapped in
<code> tags not<pre> tags. In fact, <pre>
tags should generally be avoided. If they must
be used, extreme care should be
taken to ensure that their contents do not
have long lines (<70 chars), in order to prevent
horizontal scrolling (and possible janitor
intervention).