Perl outreach

[Dirk Koopman]

On 26/11/12 15:59, Daniel Mantovani wrote:
> Dave Hodgkinson, I agree with you.
>
> Why don't we start an event for everybody with different's kind of subjects to attract people from others groups ?
> *The Perl community just do events for Perl community*, and people "afraid" of Perl will be always outside from the circle.
> We should start do events with another name, to attract people *from everywhere*, and than we show how Perl is fantastic.
>

Good luck with that...

Sorry to sound negative, but with the best will in the world, this is a 
big ask. It's like the BBC and global warming (allegedly) - they have 
decided that a contrary view is no longer sustainable. Perl is regarded 
with a similar contrary view in a computing context.

It isn't that perl isn't "fashionable" any more, it is that it is 
actively being promoted as "unfashionable". People will get fired for 
"buying" perl. Or (yet another analogy): perl is to programming what 
smoking is to workplaces - something you do in the comfort of your own 
home - or in a shelter outside specially constructed for the purpose.

Oh and the hubris that Larry promotes as virtue and many perl 
programmers openly espouse - really does not does win many friends.

Dirk