Perl outreach

[Abigail]

On Tue, Nov 27, 2012 at 10:26:37AM +1100, Kieren Diment wrote:
> On 27/11/2012, at 10:13 AM, Abigail wrote:
> 
> > For me, the top two reasons I use Perl (and there really isn't a third 
> > reason):
> > 
> >  -  It's good enough for most of what I do.
> >  -  I'm just too damn lazy to learn a different language.
> > 
> 
> I quite agree with this.  
> 
> > Or, phrased differently, the cost of learning something else doesn't seem
> > to outweight the benefits.
> > 
> 
> Or to put it yet another way:  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).  

s/perl programmer/programmer/

At Booking.com, we've stop focussing on finding new Perl programmers a long
time ago. We're looking for good *programmers* who are willing to learn Perl.
Of course, knowing Perl is an advantage, but we've found that for a good
and willing programmer, learning a new language isn't the biggest hurdle.
A language, after all, is just syntax. And most of the coding work means 
building upon something existing, making it easier to pick up a language 
than if you have to start from scratch.

> 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).
> 

I would even be more generic. We've succesfully turned C programmers to
the dark side, and C isn't a dynamic language.



Abigail