Re: Perl vs Java - your feedback, not flames

> On Wednesday, 21 Sep 2005 04:22, Stefan Neilson wrote:
> > Read this articles on your site and how a couple of =

> questions. This form
> > was completed in 2004 and I am wondering how java has =

> changed since then. I
> > have a part ownership in a software development company. =

> Currently all of
> > our software is built in perl. With the lack of perl =

> resources there has
> > been discussion about moving over to Java. I wanted to get =

> some advice
> > outside our office on the differences and benefits between =

> java and perl
> > and if it is worth the cost of moving to java.
> >
> =

> Making a company wide programming language policy is not a =

> wise policy. You =

> choose the language based on the work to be done.
> =

> It is unlikely that you will use Java for day to day =

> scripting work on the =

> shell or in cron jobs. On the other hand, in making =

> applications Java is at =

> least as much useful as Perl. Both can do more or less =

> similar things, both =

> have extensive libraries to fall back upon for missing =

> functionalities. You =

> should get a lot of Perl folks in the job front. Which lack =

> of resources are =

> you talking about?

A while back, I needed to make a decision to choose between Perl and Java (=
servlets), and I went with Perl. In fact, the original posting that Stefan =
quoted originated from me. Now that I have gone through this, I think I hav=
e a good understanding of the main differences between the two.

We work on many projects, some of which are in Java, some in Perl, and a ve=
ry few in PHP as well. For us, finding Perl expertise has been difficult, w=
hereas Java (and PHP) programmers are much easier to find. However, I perso=
nally am not a big fan of Java, simply because it has a huge footprint, and=
 a long code-compile-test cycle. Perl, on the other hand, is a lightweight,=
 has a fast code-test cycle, and is a big help in so many administrative ro=
utines that we need for project maintenance that are otherwise not (direct)=
 part of the project.

The major concern that I have seen raised whenever Perl Vs Java discussion =
comes up, is scalability. It seems to me that people doubt if Perl can scal=
e well when it comes to coding BIG projects i.e. projects involving dataset=
s with millions of tuples. People also seem to be skeptical about Perl's pe=
rformance (execution speed). My personal experience has been that Perl can =
handle such projects with equal ease. We have database tables with millions=
 of tuples, and have not had any performance issues caused especially as a =
result of using Perl. Our performance issues have mostly been due to improp=
er 'join', or tables not appropriately indexed.

This is just my personal point of view. Selecting one platform over another=
 requires many other factors to be considered, in addition to measuring tec=
hnical differences. Company's long term policy, supervisor's perception abo=
ut one or the other, are some of them.

Regards,
Nishi