Re: Critique available

I'm probably pouncing on a point you didn't intend to make,
disagreeing with something you didn't intend to say here, picking on
subtleties of how you phrased it, so I'm gonna omit the
attribution:-). I still wanna pounce on this.

> [ all sorts o' reality omitted ] how many people are going to
> start hedging their bets and investigating other non-perl
> solutions to their problems?

If thunderclouds on the horizon make more people investigate
non-perl solutions, then that would seem to me a pure benefit of any
screwups we've made:-). _Everybody_ ought to survey the field of
possible solutions, and pick the one they think best meets their
needs. We don't need or need people using perl because they didn't
investigate java, and python, and scheme, and assembler language,
and cobol, and everything else in the universe; we need them picking
perl because, after suitable investigation, they've concluded it's a
better fit for their needs than the alternatives. Anything else will
eventually get us seriously pissed-off users.

> Perl 6, if the general direction of the RFCs hold true,
> will be a much better fit for this company and their 
> product.  Can they wait?  *Will* they wait?

_Should_ they wait? No way. Perl 6 is a dream, an ephemera. I
wouldn't dream of even guessing a probability for whether it'll ever
become real. If I were a company --- or if I were advising one ---
I'd base tool choice purely on what's available today and visibly
coming available in the very near future, short-enough term that it
can be called real and tangible, not a fantasy. 5.005_* and 5.6 and
5.7 cover the range of perls to consider in planning tool choice.

> I know they've already started some migration to Java and Python.

If those languages are well-suited to their needs, as they see those
needs, then it's a good thing. Specifically anybody whose needs
could be adequately met by Java would certainly be seriously
dissatisfied with perl, they're as close to opposite languages as I
can think of, in many ways. Java is crappy engineering with superb
marketing, a good choice when you want or expect your project to
fail and you are hunting for a way to have someone else to blame for
it. Perl is _lousy_ for those tasks.

> I'm all for the truth - nothing worse than a room full of
> "our shit don't stink" marketers - but let's not scare folks
> away, either.

Depends on the folks, we only want to hang on to folks who will be
happy they stayed.

-Bennett

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