use Perl

Gartner and Perl

posted by pudge on 2001.09.25 19:44   

jjn1056 writes "As a follow up to the Gartner announcement regarding Apache, I logged on to their web site to see what they have to say about Perl. I was shocked to find that there were only 93 articles in the database (compared to the 200 listed for Java) and that most of the articles had nothing to do with Perl. For example, a report from August 31st, 2001 was titled "The Gartner Survey on Java Usage in Brazil." The only listing that actually had the word "Perl" in the title was from the middle of 1997, entitled, "Perl: Is it still a Gem?" Searching on "mod_perl" returned 3 results, 2 of which were primarily about Apache. Search for "Servlets" in the same database returns 177 hits, while "JSP" returns 117."

"Is it really the case that Java is that much more popular, or are we just doing a very bad job of getting coverage from highly weighted sources like Gartner? Just to compare, I did the same search at Forrester, and only found 4 articles about Perl, compared to the 200 about Java.

In the era of IT downsizing, can we afford to ignore this trend? Lots of great things are happening in the Perl community, but the outside world is not recognizing it. I really wonder that if Apache can get such positive press, why can't Perl?"

This is a hot topic among some people. My view is that people don't talk about perl the same way they don't talk about English and electricity. It is just there, and lots of people use it, and it works great ... what's there to say? Sure, this kind of perception has its own problems, but I think Perl is widely viewed as this great tool that almost everyone uses, which is overall a good thing.

• URL for their recomendation (Score:1)

  by wickline (135)

  They aren't very deep-link friendly, but here's a URL:
  
  http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?id=340962 [gartner.com]
  
  -matt
  • Re:URL for their recomendation (Score:1)

    by wickline (135)

    whoops, I posted the reply on the wrong gartner article.
    
    I'll go stick it on the other one too.
    
    sorry 'bout the spam folks :)
    
    -matt
• promote perl with analysts, esp for web services (Score:1)

  by bbacker (1187)

  Especially alarming to me -- most of the articles I've read recently about web services (SOAP, UDDI, WSDL) talk exclusively about java, or java vs. microsoft's .NET. This ignores the great work being done in other languages, especially perl, and continues the the mindset "it's enterprise web related so it must be java". This may not be reality, but that's the way it's expressed in many software trade magazines. Are there any perl based implementations of web services to point Gartner, et al at? I mean fun
• Gartner and vendors (Score:1)

  by jdfox (2116)

  Gartner don't really deal in technology: they analyze vendors. They never really wrote about Linux until significant commercial names like IBM started investing in it.

  Similarly, there will never be any notice taken of Perl at Gartner apart from brief, mostly disparaging comparisons when writing about similar technologies, until there is a "Perl vendor" who can go kiss Gartner's ring. This means attending lots of their conferences, phoning them frequently with the "Perl story" on related developments, and
  • Re:Gartner and vendors (Score:1)

    by jjn1056 (1241)

    What about ActiveState? They've been around for a while and provide enterprise support? They are also actively developing Perl for MS .Net, so maybe they would be enough to convince people Perl is not a legacy technology.

    --
    Waiting on the Road to Eventually, I lost my Place On Line
    • ActiveState (Score:1)

      by jdfox (2116)

      A good idea: I'd be glad to hear of them coordinating with PM/YAS on this, sharing info etc.
  • Well said, sir! (Score:1)

    by Petruchio (1576)

    That's the best summary of Gartner I've heard... and you even managed not to be disparaging. :-)

    Here are some Gartner pronouncements I find give a good assessment of their overall cluefulness:

    • 1993: Windows NT (3.5) will have 80% of the desktop market within 2 years of release
    • 1994: Internet will grow to 6 million users by 2005
    • 1995: Cobol is used in over 65% of new application development
    • 1996: Windows NT 4.0 will have 80% of the internet server market by 1998.
    • 1996: Cobol is the w