Ask HN: Is Perl dead?

#1

Post by sendos » Fri, Sep 03, 2010, 5:34 PM UTC

I've been noticing that Perl doesn't get mentioned that much anymore in articles, blog posts, HN threads, etc.

A current example is the "Who's hiring" thread which is now on HN: Most of the requirements are C/C++/Java/PHP/Python/Ruby, and almost none are for Perl.

However, this is not just about hiring. In almost anything I read, there is barely a mention of Perl anymore.

FYI, I use Perl extensively for text file parsing and processing, and I'm not familiar with Python or Ruby, but it seems that these two languages are "winning the war" against Perl (although I assume some of you may dispute that these two languages are even comparable to Perl, for a variety of reasons)

Is my general observation correct?

Will Perl 6 be able to turn things around, or is it too late?

Re: Ask HN: Is Perl dead?

#2

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Sep 03, 2010, 5:43 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Is Perl dead?

#3

Post by buster » Fri, Sep 03, 2010, 6:02 PM UTC

I guess: yes.

The only place i see it is in some old scripts running at customers and they ALWAYS are a nightmare, unmaintainable, horrific, spaghetti code that oftern enough makes me want to poke my eyeballs out. Mostly, the customer agrees with me, but usually those scripts are too big to be replaced quickly... :/

Re: Ask HN: Is Perl dead?

#4

Post by kqueue » Fri, Sep 03, 2010, 6:05 PM UTC

Learn Python and you'll notice why perl doesn't make sense.

Re: Ask HN: Is Perl dead?

#5

Post by chrisclark1729 » Fri, Sep 03, 2010, 6:05 PM UTC

This is a question, but isn't it used fairly often in the finance industry?

Re: Ask HN: Is Perl dead?

#6

Post by mgummelt » Fri, Sep 03, 2010, 6:06 PM UTC

Not if you include Asia. It's huge there, especially in Japan.

Re: Ask HN: Is Perl dead?

#7

Post by xtho » Fri, Sep 03, 2010, 6:08 PM UTC

chrisclark1729 wrote: post #5

This is a question, but isn't it used fairly often in the finance industry?

Are you suggesting that this could explain certain events in the past?

Re: Ask HN: Is Perl dead?

#8

Post by jwr » Fri, Sep 03, 2010, 6:12 PM UTC

It is a very useful tool that serves many needs.

It isn't "dead" anymore than the Norwegian language is "dead".

It might just not be your first choice for your next project.

Re: Ask HN: Is Perl dead?

#9

Post by telemachos » Fri, Sep 03, 2010, 6:13 PM UTC

(Second try at this)

First, anyone who says that Python or Ruby is not even comparable to Perl is full of it or very mistaken. They are close enough that we quickly run into the narcissism of small differences [1].

Second, in my experience HN ranges from uninterested to hostile when it comes to Perl. I read lots about Perl, but many of the blogs or forums I frequent are Perl-centric. My point is simply that you shouldn't judge by "what you read" if what you read is a function of what you choose or who you follow.

Third, and most importantly, the Perl5 community doesn't seem anywhere near dead. Off the top of my head, I'm particularly happy with a slew of new tools for working with Perl and CPAN: cpanm[2], perlbrew[3], cpan-outdated[4], pmuninstall[5], cpansearch [6] (written in C, but obviously made for the Perl community). There's also Plack[7] for modern Perl webapps. Finally, consider the whole Modern Perl[8] movement.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissism_of_small_differences

[2] http://github.com/miyagawa/cpanminus

[3] http://github.com/gugod/App-perlbrew

[4] http://github.com/tokuhirom/cpan-outdated

[5] http://github.com/xaicron/pm-uninstall

[6] http://github.com/c9s/cpansearch

[7] http://plackperl.org/

[8] http://github.com/chromatic/modern_perl_book