DuckDuckGo donates $25k to the Perl and Raku Foundation • Hacker News Board

Re: DuckDuckGo donates $25k to the Perl and Raku Foundation

#61

Post by SushiHippie » Tue, Dec 03, 2024, 5:13 PM UTC

_swfb wrote: post #40

I always forget that DDG is written with Perl, even after I emailed yegg a million years ago asking why they used Perl, and he responded back, which was nice of him. I hear Raku is fun, I haven't used it, but I sort of swore a soft oath that I would never touch Perl again about a decade ago after having to debug some regex magic someone did. I'm assuming that once you get past the "hump", Perl becomes fun?

> [...] asking why they used Perl, and he responded back, which was nice of him.

Do you still know what the reason was?

Re: DuckDuckGo donates $25k to the Perl and Raku Foundation

#62

Post by jefftk » Tue, Dec 03, 2024, 5:15 PM UTC

munificent wrote: post #56

sneak wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gifts don’t require repayment. Releasing free software is a gift to the world. Corporations don’t owe free software maintainers a cent, because people using your software doesn’t cost you anything.

> because people using your software doesn’t cost you anything. Tell me you've never been an open source maintainer without telling me you've never been an open source maintainer. :)

I've been an open source maintainer (and still am to a smaller degree) and I think sneak is right. I'm happy for people to use things I create and release, and their use doesn't impose costs on me.

Re: DuckDuckGo donates $25k to the Perl and Raku Foundation

#63

Post by VTimofeenko » Tue, Dec 03, 2024, 5:18 PM UTC

jimmaswell wrote: post #47

esaym wrote: post #21

Craigslist used to donate over $100,000 every single year. Not sure when that stopped. That is really what kept perl going between the years of 2010 and 2016 or so. The board was actually paying a couple of people to do maintenance on the core repository and code. I believe they still do that but obviously due to deficits that is going to get difficult. It's sad when so many companies are dependent upon perl, but don…

I miss Craigslist, seems like everyone moved over to Facebook Marketplace a few years ago.

Anecdata but as a buyer and seller I consistently have had a much better experience on CL. It might be region-specific.

Re: DuckDuckGo donates $25k to the Perl and Raku Foundation

#64

Post by shrubble » Tue, Dec 03, 2024, 5:19 PM UTC

Another post in the thread mentions ATT; I can confirm that at another large telecom, Perl is still used in quite a few places, and is still being used for some new projects as well.

Re: DuckDuckGo donates $25k to the Perl and Raku Foundation

#65

Post by steve_adams_86 » Tue, Dec 03, 2024, 5:19 PM UTC

esaym wrote: post #21

Craigslist used to donate over $100,000 every single year. Not sure when that stopped. That is really what kept perl going between the years of 2010 and 2016 or so. The board was actually paying a couple of people to do maintenance on the core repository and code. I believe they still do that but obviously due to deficits that is going to get difficult. It's sad when so many companies are dependent upon perl, but don…

https://hakai.org uses quite a bit of perl in its various projects! The CTO is very adept with it (really nice guy, too).

Re: DuckDuckGo donates $25k to the Perl and Raku Foundation

#66

Post by declan_roberts » Tue, Dec 03, 2024, 5:20 PM UTC

esaym wrote: post #21

Craigslist used to donate over $100,000 every single year. Not sure when that stopped. That is really what kept perl going between the years of 2010 and 2016 or so. The board was actually paying a couple of people to do maintenance on the core repository and code. I believe they still do that but obviously due to deficits that is going to get difficult. It's sad when so many companies are dependent upon perl, but don…

Craigslist was purchased by ebay in 2004, which is what happened.

Re: DuckDuckGo donates $25k to the Perl and Raku Foundation

#67

Post by that_guy_iain » Tue, Dec 03, 2024, 5:21 PM UTC

dep_b wrote: post #44

tyingq wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

booking.com is, I think, still a heavy Perl user. I don't know to what degree they give back.

It’s being phased out quite aggressively there. Turned out they had such a bad reputation for tech debt thru couldn’t hire people despite paying +50% median Amsterdam developer salaries.

I think a lot of companies are kind of realising the tech stack they use has a bigger impact on hiring than salaries. I believe banks are encountering this issue with no one wanting to do C++ anymore.

Re: DuckDuckGo donates $25k to the Perl and Raku Foundation

#68

Post by nu11ptr » Tue, Dec 03, 2024, 5:21 PM UTC

sneak wrote: post #39

esaym wrote: post #21

Craigslist used to donate over $100,000 every single year. Not sure when that stopped. That is really what kept perl going between the years of 2010 and 2016 or so. The board was actually paying a couple of people to do maintenance on the core repository and code. I believe they still do that but obviously due to deficits that is going to get difficult. It's sad when so many companies are dependent upon perl, but don…

Gifts don’t require repayment. Releasing free software is a gift to the world. Corporations don’t owe free software maintainers a cent, because people using your software doesn’t cost you anything.

100%. This new trend of maintaining or starting an open source project and then getting upset when people don't send you money is seriously weird. If you want compensation, start a company, otherwise consider anything you receive a gift.

Re: DuckDuckGo donates $25k to the Perl and Raku Foundation

#69

Post by fragmede » Tue, Dec 03, 2024, 5:22 PM UTC

declan_roberts wrote: post #66

esaym wrote: post #21

Craigslist used to donate over $100,000 every single year. Not sure when that stopped. That is really what kept perl going between the years of 2010 and 2016 or so. The board was actually paying a couple of people to do maintenance on the core repository and code. I believe they still do that but obviously due to deficits that is going to get difficult. It's sad when so many companies are dependent upon perl, but don…

Craigslist was purchased by ebay in 2004, which is what happened.

Ebay bought a 25% stake, which it later sold back to them, so only sort of.

Re: DuckDuckGo donates $25k to the Perl and Raku Foundation

#70

Post by seam_carver » Tue, Dec 03, 2024, 5:24 PM UTC

jefftk wrote: post #62

munificent wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> because people using your software doesn’t cost you anything. Tell me you've never been an open source maintainer without telling me you've never been an open source maintainer. :)

I've been an open source maintainer (and still am to a smaller degree) and I think sneak is right. I'm happy for people to use things I create and release, and their use doesn't impose costs on me.

Tech support still takes time.