Perl is dead

[breno]

On Thu, Dec 4, 2008 at 3:52 PM, Michele Beltrame <mb at cattlegrid.info> wrote:
>
> I think this simplicity of those installations derives from the fact that
> providers are easily able to build a php/mod_php which includes the most used
> things (mail functions, database access, image processing) directly into the
> php binary. PHP programmers only need to upload their .php files via FTP and
> they just work. No modules to install, it's all already there.
>

I like where this might go. Although everyone in the Perl community
knows TIMTOWTDI, we also know that some ways are better than others.
Nonetheless, I believe this is not the case for people outside or just
entering the Perl world, specially regarding modules and a certain
public repository we all know and love. There's been a lot of effort
in providing some support for recommendation such as annocpan,
cpanratings, cpanrt, cpants, cpantesters, and the 'related modules'
box, but they are mostly see-for-yourself-and-make-your-choice. Don't
get me wrong, all those services are marvelous, but to Perl
programmers. Beginners and enthusiasts probably won't figure them out
("so many options, so little time"), and web providers certainty won't
care much. As a suggestion that might not go anywhere (or even
introduce flame), maybe the community could discuss a set of
recommended general purpose modules for our beloved general purpose
language, ones we believe would cover most of the "popular Perl
programming". Should we turn it into a Bundle or two (CPAN-Standard,
CPAN-Enterprise, whatever), it'd be a lot easier for newcomers to know
where to look at, easier for enterprises to evaluate Perl's power, and
easier for everyone to deploy. As it would be sort of a "standard
modules installation", Michele's comment ("no modules to install, it's
all already there") would also apply to Perl (well, not Perl itself as
I'm not talking about core modules, but I hope you know what I mean).

>
> Should we go as far as creating a "mod_lightperl" alike to mod_php, which
> makes the interpreter stay resident and and bundles the commonly used web-related
> modules? Used together with something like HTML::Mason this could
> actually become something really akin to PHP, with the only difference
> that one writes its code in Perl. And then Dreamweaver users could use
> Perl as easily as PHP; but, at this point, more than Perl it would be
> "a web development system where you enter some Perl inside your web
> pages".
>

Like embperl?

http://perl.apache.org/embperl/


Cheers,

-b