Perl outreach

[Anthony Lucas]

On 26 November 2012 23:26, Kieren Diment <diment at gmail.com> wrote:
> cross learning a different language in the same class as perl (wide field) is clearly trivial for a competent perl programmer (for some value of trivial that implies an initial discount on productivity or billable hours).
>

This. 100 times.

> So maybe what we should be promoting is that good perl people are valuable in any dynamic language situation where doing things the cheapest possible way isn't the primary goal. (not that perl's expensive - just a focus on cheap at all costs tends to be a sign of very bad management or a toxic industry segment).
>

Between your previous replies, and this one, I'm a bit confused on
your stance (so forgive me if I misunderstand). Surely a good Perl
developer is a good <$lang> developer as well? Surely such a developer
would take the time to learn one or two other languages...

I agree with your premise, but I can't agree with the conclusion.
Based on your first statement, there is no need to "push", promote, or
force Perl onto any client or employer.

Perl is not a marketing product, it's not a political party, and not a
religion. I don't agree with pushing agendas in this way, even though
much of FOSS seems to be going this way recently (I'm surprised those
projects don't see the irony in their actions).

I think David H was simply asking about positive involvement within
the tech community. Sharing our enjoyment of it, our creativity, our
lessons from it. This is the best way to see changes of opinion in the
people we meet.