Re: Google considers Perl a useful skill

Experience programming in one or more of the following languages: C, C++, Java, Python, Go, Perl, or Ruby

I see that job is in Bangalore, India. Curiously, a similar careers.google.com job advert for a Software Engineer in Warsaw, Poland asks for:

Experience with one or more general purpose programming languages including but not limited to: Java, C/C++, C#, Objective C, Python, JavaScript, or Go" ... along with "ability to learn other coding languages as needed"

So it seems each region is free nowadays to choose their preferred programming languages ... a nice change from the early years when I heard anecdotally that the only languages permitted at Google for serious production code were C++, Java and Python.

Curiously, Guido van Rossum, a famous Google employee from those early years, did not know who introduced Python at Google in the first place! Hmmm, now that Guido has left Google for Microsoft, will we now see Python adoption rising inside Microsoft and declining at Google?

Oh well, I'm delighted that both Bangalore and Warsaw at least did not ask for my three most hated languages: Windows BAT, PHP and Cobol. :)

For some background on Programming Language Sociology and Evolution see: Organizational Culture (Part VI): Sociology

See also my mandatory list of Links Comparing Programming Languages

Comment on Re: Google considers Perl a useful skill

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Re^2: Google considers Perl a useful skill by jdporter (Paladin) on Oct 12, 2022 at 13:57 UTC
I think it should be clear to everyone that if you know Perl and you get a job at Google because you do, you will not be programming in Perl at Google. They just want you to be a programmer. You will use the language they tell you to use.	[reply]
Re^3: Google considers Perl a useful skill by LanX (Saint) on Oct 12, 2022 at 14:46 UTC
I can't imagine a firm that size having zero Perl programmers. But the truth is that good programmers are so rare, that job descriptions tend to "fish" everywhere, in the hope to easily train the haul to swim in a new pond. One of my last clients was even actively looking for PHP coders to be able to train them on Perl. I dare saying a versatile Perl programmer can easily adapt, because of its TIMTOWTDI tendency to cover a maximum of paradigms, he has seen most concepts already. Cheers Rolf _{(addicted to the 𐍀𐌴𐍂𐌻 Programming Language :) Wikisyntax for the Monastery}	[reply]
Re^4: Google considers Perl a useful skill by stevieb (Canon) on Oct 12, 2022 at 16:46 UTC
But the truth is that good programmers are so rare, that job descriptions tend to "fish" everywhere ...and, of course, all the best programmers are in their heart and core, Perl programmers ;)	[reply]
Re^4: Google considers Perl a useful skill by choroba (Cardinal) on Oct 14, 2022 at 08:30 UTC
> I can't imagine a firm that size having zero Perl programmers. I fear it's not a matter of size but age. I started working in a relatively new company (started in 2009) that has a few thousand employees and we have less than 20 perl scripts in the whole codebase. `map{substr$_->[0],$_->[1]\|\|0,1}[\\|\|{},3],[[]],[ref qr-1,-,-1],[{}],[sub{}^ARGV,3]`	[reply] [d/l]
Re^5: Google considers Perl a useful skill by LanX (Saint) on Oct 14, 2022 at 14:19 UTC
Re^3: Google considers Perl a useful skill by jordanh (Chaplain) on Oct 12, 2022 at 21:12 UTC
I'm not so sure about that. Maybe not a lot of project work, but there's Perl in odd places on the Internet. They probably don't want to hire contractors just to figure out what's going on. Also, they may also be using Perl for portable scripts they need to distribute to a number of different environments. Really, none of those other languages are BETTER than Perl for that and Perl is highly likely to be already installed in a lot of Linux and Unix systems.	[reply]
Re^4: Google considers Perl a useful skill by Your Mother (Archbishop) on Oct 12, 2022 at 21:35 UTC
While all of that is true there is an irrational hostility toward Perl that sometimes makes people choose other options even when Perl is the best and easiest for a given task.	[reply]
Re^5: Google considers Perl a useful skill by Bod (Parson) on Oct 12, 2022 at 21:42 UTC
Re^6: Google considers Perl a useful skill by eyepopslikeamosquito (Archbishop) on Oct 12, 2022 at 22:40 UTC
Some notes below your chosen depth have not been shown here
Re^4: Google considers Perl a useful skill by jdporter (Paladin) on Oct 13, 2022 at 21:25 UTC
Maybe not a lot of project work, but there's Perl in odd places Of course. I don't use Perl on the $applications (or should I say @applications) I'm working on; they're in C#, C++, Java. But I still use perl a lot, for crafting my own tools and one-off data munging jobs, etc. My point is, if "Google considers Perl a useful skill", it's not (I guess) because they have Perl projects they need programmers for. But ICBW, IOA. ;-) they may also be using Perl for portable scripts I am very skeptical.	[reply]
Re^5: Google considers Perl a useful skill by LanX (Saint) on Oct 13, 2022 at 21:51 UTC
Re^6: Google considers Perl a useful skill by jdporter (Paladin) on Oct 14, 2022 at 12:11 UTC
Re^2: Google considers Perl a useful skill by astroboy (Chaplain) on Oct 16, 2022 at 20:06 UTC
Python is heavily used in Azure. Microsoft's pretty much onboard	[reply]


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