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From: Todd Cranston-Cuebas <Todd.Cranston-Cuebas@Ticketmaster.com>
To: Modperl List <modperl@perl.apache.org>
Subject: RE: mod_perl presence at OSCON (and other CONs) is at danger
Date: Wed, 9 Jun 2004 09:51:50 -0700 
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First, let me preface my comments with the admission that I'm not a perl
programmer. However, I do recruit a lot of perl programmers! What isn't
really being discussed is that fact that new programmers often work with
whatever technology allows them to cheaply get sites up and running on the
web. Do a Yahoo search on "PHP web hosting" and you get 15.9 million links.
Do the same search for "mod_perl web hosting" and you get 374,000. Still a
lot, but you get the point. Until people can pick a cheap, reliable, and
well-known hosting service where mod_perl is one of the main options, you
limit your ability to attract new programmers. Go after the hosting
companies with a complete mod_perl "package" that will be attractive to
their clients. You might convince people if they had mod_perl as an easy
choice (??). Perhaps I'm being a bit too simplistic, but I really like to
recruit the young, talented, and eager people. I find they often use the
tools that present themselves to them at the right time in their growing
career.

I also pulled this Perl-Users digest from
http://www.mit.edu:8008/bloom-picayune.mit.edu/perl/23077 so I want to give
full credit. It makes a similar point but with additional details that may
be of value. As would be expected, Garry received a fair amount of well,
response, to his comments, but you can check out the full digest if you'd
like.

Perl-Users Digest, Issue: 5298 Volume: 10
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Thu Jul 31 11:10:33 2003 )
Date: Thu, 31 Jul 2003 08:10:09 -0700 (PDT)
From: Perl-Users Digest <Perl-Users-Request@ruby.OCE.ORST.EDU>
To: Perl-Users@ruby.OCE.ORST.EDU (Perl-Users Digest)

Date: Thu, 31 Jul 2003 13:24:59 +0100
From: Garry Heaton <none@none.com>
Subject: Web development and Perl 6
Message-Id: <4Z7Wa.51130$9C6.2994987@wards.force9.net>

I'm web developer who's been usinng Perl/CGI.pm for a while before switching
to PHP.

IMHO if Perl 6 doesn't come with some kind of SDK for web developoment, ie.
at least a templating system, then it will become increasingly marginalised
in the web development world due to the proliferation of PHP within modestly
priced hosting deals.

It's not enough to say mod_perl/Embperl/Mason or whatever for the simple
reason that many new web developers and teachers use cheap hosting deals
which invariably come fully configured with PHP/MySQL and nothing more than
standard Perl/CGI.pm. These hosts won't consider running mod_perl or any
templatinng system. In fact I've come across many more expensive hosting
deals with similar constraints regarding Perl. mod_perl is too great a risk
for shared hosting environments.

Perl is in too many bits and pieces, at least where web development is
concerned. DBI, DBD::mysql, mod_perl, Mason/Embperl. That's a non-starter
with most hosting deals so you're average web developer turns to PHP which
usually comes fully optimised without the need for additional modules. I'm
talking about basic bread and butter database website work here, not LWP
jobs.

Perl started out as a sysadmin tool but there's no reason to stay in that
niche now we have Perl 6 on the way. If we don't seize the chance to bundle
a proper web development SDK with Perl 6 PHP will just become the de facto
server-side scripting language for web development.

Garry Heaton

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