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in reply to Remove CGI.pm from Perl Core?

Well, this is just my opinion, but I feel if you remove CGI from core you might as well declare Perl dead (for the web at least). The entry bar to Perl beginners needs to be lower not higher.

As long as CGI is in core, it's a simple step to use it and get on with the business of showing future developers how to do cool stuff on the web. Those helpful tutorials on the web make it easy to 'get Perl' followed by 'use CGI' and end in 'hello world' before anyone loses interest. Without CGI in core, it's 'get Perl' followed by discussion about which CGI modules to use, followed by more discussion about how to get modules from CPAN, ending with the beginner googling the next web tutorial looking for one that 'just works' without all the fuss (and another PHP coder is born). CGI in core is a carrot to get past the Perl learning curve after which, better CGI replacements can be evaluated with more experience.

But it shouldn't be left to rot in core either. Nothing in core should ever be allowed to become stale and outdated. Better that it be updated in CPAN than neglected in core.

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Re^2: Remove CGI.pm from Perl Core?
by chromatic (Archbishop) on May 28, 2013 at 05:18 UTC
    .... and another PHP coder is born...

    If ease of deployment is the primary concern, nothing beats PHP anyway, so either someone comes up with something even easier to deploy (and maintain) than mod_php or we've already ceded that cohort.

    If the alternative is people switch to (say) Ruby or Python, then they're going to have a dilly of a time realizing that none of Django, Rails, Flask, Sinatra, et al are core libraries in their respective languages either.

    Nothing in core should ever be allowed to become stale and outdated.

    Without a small army of volunteers, how do you turn should not into does not?

      If one is actually talking about getting web work done, vs. religion, then PHP does deserve some praise ... before being taken out in front of the wall at dawn, and shot.   ;-)   Most of us have to admit that we have some responsibility somewhere for some big PHP monstrosity, probably written in some (equally monstrous ...) PHP version that is no longer being maintained anymore, but which remains in service (and locked in limbo) because someone on the PHP team decided to make some feature of the language “–er” in some incompatible way.

      Nevertheless, what they do with their tool is their concern, not Perl’s.   At the end of the day, they’re all just ... tools ... and we probably use many of them, before returning, with a gentle sigh of relief (and perhaps a nip of fine cognac), to ... Perl.   :-D

Re^2: Remove CGI.pm from Perl Core?
by jakeease (Friar) on May 28, 2013 at 05:33 UTC

    But it shouldn't be left to rot in core either. Nothing in core should ever be allowed to become stale and outdated. Better that it be updated in CPAN than neglected in core.

    I must have missed something. Will moving it from core to CPAN result in its being updated more and neglected less?