First, I think we're all off topic here and should be discussing Scott's book...sorry Scott, haven't read it yet.
I find it incredibly amusing that everyone always asks..."Why should you use Perl any more?". I think the real question should be, "Why SHOULDN'T you use Perl?". Just because a language is older doesn't mean that it's still very well suited to solve the majority of your programming needs. Perhaps Perl isn't well suited for certain niche applications or (Perl mongers forgive me) super easy web design like PHP; BUT, that doesn't mean it's worthless and should be abandoned.
It will forever have a place in the corporate scripting world. That's probably why (contrary to other "I ditched Perl for Python" posters) I know 10 Perl coders for every one that professes an affinity or even working knowledge of Python. And yes, hate mail to the white space fanatic that spawned that little "requirement".
Because Perl is no longer the new flavor of the month shouldn't equate to everyone questioning it's value or worth. It should be given fair consideration along with any other language when reviewing a project need balanced with the costs of having your programmers learn a new language. If Perl can efficiently solve 90% of your needs, why not chose to use it 90% of the time. Of course, it really comes down to what you're comfortable with, cause if everyone did a fair review, I'm guessing that many of the newer scripting languages would have been determined as mainly unnecessary and would have never gotten off the ground, or could it be that Kerrnigan & Ritchy would have had the last laugh and none of these languages would exist (particularly the MS ones).
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First, I think we're all off topic here and should be discussing Scott's book...sorry Scott, haven't read it yet. I find it incredibly amusing that everyone always asks..."Why should you use Perl any more?". I think the real question should be, "Why SHOULDN'T you use Perl?". Just because a language is older doesn't mean that it's still very well suited to solve the majority of your programming needs. Perhaps Perl isn't well suited for certain niche applications or (Perl mongers forgive me) super easy web design like PHP; BUT, that doesn't mean it's worthless and should be abandoned. It will forever have a place in the corporate scripting world. That's probably why (contrary to other "I ditched Perl for Python" posters) I know 10 Perl coders for every one that professes an affinity or even working knowledge of Python. And yes, hate mail to the white space fanatic that spawned that little "requirement". Because Perl is no longer the new flavor of the month shouldn't equate to everyone questioning it's value or worth. It should be given fair consideration along with any other language when reviewing a project need balanced with the costs of having your programmers learn a new language. If Perl can efficiently solve 90% of your needs, why not chose to use it 90% of the time. Of course, it really comes down to what you're comfortable with, cause if everyone did a fair review, I'm guessing that many of the newer scripting languages would have been determined as mainly unnecessary and would have never gotten off the ground, or could it be that Kerrnigan & Ritchy would have had the last laugh and none of these languages would exist (particularly the MS ones).