Reverend monks,

I have been vorking for a big IT shop doing development on a hash of platforms thru' the past 20+++ years: IBM zOS=>MVS/CICS PL/I, Un*X=>C, MS-DNA=>VB/COM, and at the moment MS.Net=>C#.

I have being occupied developing apps && setting up courses && guidelines for using these OS'es and development environments, -- Basic (yes), C, C++, ASP/JavaScript (sigh), ASP.NET.The way the ball bounces.

Recently (2 years ago) i faced the task of developing a framework for reverse engineering our =~ 40 calendar year, thousands of man year, >4 bill. Danish Kr (you go figure...) legacy software: 68.392 programs, 90.645 includes, 18.562 DB requests, 2.347 CICS-tabelles, ... Enter AWK.

So, yes, coming from Uni*x, i turned to AWK in v.1 to glue together a toolkit for a lightweight reverse engineering of our legacy software. The main components being (on PC/Windows):

    MKS utilities            Make, 
    MKS utilities            Awk.
    AT&T Research GraphViz        Layout (cmap, svg, ps, pdf... etc)
    yWorks yEd            Layout & Viewing (gml)
    AFPL GhostScript        Viewing (ps)
    Adobe viewer            Viewing (svg)
    Acrobat Reader            Viewing (pdf)
[download]

The v.1 did well as a proof of concept, but AWK didn't QUITE fulfill my needs of a flexoble scripting language, so i turned to Perl. Enter :

    ActiveState Perl        Scripting
[download]

What a relief!!! A full blown programming language with built in data structs and a powerfull regex machine that did fit my needs like a glove! And as i looked around, -- behold: a CPAN full of gold. So v.2 of the project was much more powerfull, and a pleasure to develop and maintain. Furthermore, with an interest in (and yes, a degree in, -- years back) computer science, i do enjoy the transparency of the Perl language with resp.to types, objects, closures etc. etc.

Now, i stop and ask myself this question;
Perl is beyond doubt a unique programming language and an exceptional community; I'd like to use the Power-of-Perl in more (technical) development projects at work, but working for a traditional IT shop (with fixed standards and firm strategies), that is far from easy to obtain.

You guys out there, with a firm intesest in Perl : what type of IT organizations are you working for, and what type of projects/tasks are you tacking using Perl as your prefered tool. For what reasons, and to what ends are you using Perl in your dailu work?

I'm asking this partly out of curiosity, but also in the hope that your response may spark some inspiration for me (and others like me) as to new projects for wielding this magical mystery sword.

Best regards,
-- allan

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As the eternal tranquility of Truth reveals itself to us, this very place is the Land of Lotuses
-- Hakuin Ekaku Zenji