Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

BBC Creates 'Perl on Rails'

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the this-isn't-the-third-rail-is-it dept.

Bogtha writes "Long-time users of Perl for their public websites, and having successfully used Ruby on Rails for internal websites, the BBC have fused the two by creating a 'Perl on Rails' that has the advantages of rapid development that Rails brings, while performing well enough to be used for the Beeb's high-traffic public websites. This is already powering one of their websites, and is set to be used in the controversial iPlayer project as well."

25 of 216 comments (clear)

  1. I would have gotten a first post... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    If it weren't for the fact that Slashdot uses @#$%ing slow Perl!

  2. Holy Crap by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Good god, did anyone proofread that first sentence? Its almost incomprehensible by normal, english-speaking humans.

    1. Re:Holy Crap by Cheesey · · Score: 4, Funny

      Its almost incomprehensible by normal, english-speaking humans.

      Yes, but add a few $'s and %'s in the right places, and it turns into a one-line cross-platform implementation of iPlayer written in Perl. (If your Perl code can be understood by humans without extreme effort, you're just not trying.)

      --
      >north
      You're an immobile computer, remember?
    2. Re:Holy Crap by pdbaby · · Score: 4, Funny

      I don't see the problem...

      understand it easily if longtime perl programmer($self);

      --
      Global symbol "$deity" requires explicit package name at line 2. - If only $scripture started "use strict;"
    3. Re:Holy Crap by coleblak · · Score: 3, Funny

      The short sentences we use nowadays are a more recent innovation. In the past, run-ons were the bloody norm and they totally sucked; people who used them needed to be shot in a most painful and brutal area since they can make it such a bitch to read a paragraph aloud in class when you're thirteen and just wanting to get it over with and go back to looking at the cute girl who sits in front of you.

      --
      77 HITS
      Really Long Off Topic Combo
    4. Re:Holy Crap by zsouthboy · · Score: 3, Funny

      I am interested in your ideas and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

    5. Re:Holy Crap by Cairnarvon · · Score: 4, Funny

      If it was meant to be easy to understand, we wouldn't have called it "code".

    6. Re:Holy Crap by leonbloy · · Score: 2, Funny

      'Only a moron could believe that there is nothing wrong with a sentence which can be grammatically parsed as valid and comprehensible but which is so long and twisted that only after thirty words, a lot of comas and conjunctions, you can deduce its structure and realize that its beginning was an appositive instead of the subject', is an affirmation that I would not fully approve.

    7. Re:Holy Crap by laejoh · · Score: 0, Funny

      If it was meant to be easy to understand, we wouldn't have called it "perl".

      There, I corrected it for you!

    8. Re:Holy Crap by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      What is more sad, the above post has a bash.org quote, or that I recognize it as being so?

  3. Madness, I say by Anne+Thwacks · · Score: 4, Funny

    I am going to create "PHP off the Rails" for developers of PHP websites. PHP developers will need no training, as most of them are off the rails already!

    --
    Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
    1. Re:Madness, I say by Victor+Antolini · · Score: 2, Funny

      What about http://www.sqlonrails.com/ ? It rocks!!

    2. Re:Madness, I say by rho · · Score: 2, Funny

      I'm not getting involved with any of this. I'm holding out for Rails on Rails. You don't have to write any code, you just submit a bid and the project is finished.

      --
      Potato chips are a by-yourself food.
    3. Re:Madness, I say by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 2, Funny

      Why people never learn to admit that some people think Perl looks nicer than the language they love most?

      For most of the same reasons that make it hard to admit that their wife is an alcoholic or that their son wants to become a Hari Krishna. There are certain truths that make it difficult to believe in a rational society. Yours is one of them.

      --
      Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
  4. Super by brunes69 · · Score: 4, Funny

    So... is this trying to combine the slowness and unscaleability of Ruby on Rails with the unreadability of Perl?

  5. Conspiracy! by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 4, Funny

    This is proof that there is a conspiracy to make up absurd programming shenanigans to sell overpriced door stoppers! Coming soon...

    "Perl on Rails for Dummies"

    "Perl on Rails for Idiots"

    "Perl on Rails Bible"

    "Perl on Rails in 24 Hours"

    "Perl on Rails in a Nutshell"

    "Perl on Rails: The Missing Manual"

    ...at a bookstore near you to burn a hole in your wallet!

    1. Re:Conspiracy! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Not if you are a Comcast subscriber.

  6. Don't get your hopes up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    This'll be UK-only; probably licensed under the BBCPL, which is like the GPL, but only for people in England, Scotland, Wales, and N. Ireland.

    1. Re:Don't get your hopes up by adrianmonk · · Score: 3, Funny

      This'll be UK-only; probably licensed under the BBCPL, which is like the GPL, but only for people in England, Scotland, Wales, and N. Ireland.

      Could be worse. Could be released under the TVL (TV Licence), where you'd have to pay £135.50 per year to run the software. (Or £45.50 if your web site is in black and white instead of color.)

      The good news then would be that if you live in your parents' basement and they have a TV Licence paid for, you can host the web site under their licence as long as the server is located in your parents' house.

  7. glark by Juln · · Score: 3, Funny

    Whatever.

    As long as it somehow involves more and better Dr. Who reruns, I'm happy.

    What? Their website? I want Dr. Who reruns on that, then. The ones with the curly haired guy.

    --
    Juln
  8. Thanks a lot Beeb.. by Adambomb · · Score: 3, Funny

    With all that the perl community sees in terms of mockery, did you REALLY need to add "powers the BBC iPlayer" to it?

    --
    Ice Cream has no bones.
  9. Surely the BBC of all organizations... by goombah99 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Should have preferred Python or Parrot. I mean c'mon. nudge nudge know what I mean... She's a goer.

    --
    Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
  10. But what is Rails standing on? by Phroon · · Score: 4, Funny

    At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: "What you have told us is rubbish. Web development is really Ruby supported on the back of Rails."

    The developer gave a superior smile before replying, "What is Rails standing on?"

    "You're very clever, young man, very clever," said the old lady. "But it's Rails all the way down!"

  11. But "Perl on Rails" is not alliterative... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    how about "Perl on a Pogo Stick"?

  12. "need" is the new "want" by petes_PoV · · Score: 3, Funny
    If you tell me you 'need' a language to implement a website ...

    This is just word-inflation. in the same way that children nowadays "need" a chocolate bar.

    In business, the best way to see if someone really "needs" something is to see how much hassle they're willing to suffer to get it. For example, if they need a $1000 product, then I'd need a 20 page justification. If they need to attend a conference in 'Vegas, I need them to work weekends to catch-up the time etc. You get the idea.

    --
    politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons