Reliable and performant multi-threading applications, like advanced graphic-intensive GUIs, are probably the most visible problem for Perl right now. Any operating-level code is out, too, since Perl is based on C, and the standard C library functions are in general not reentrant. That probably also eliminates Perl for a lot of embedded device code.

Another, more disturbing problem for me is that, IMHO, it is very hard to develop with large teams in Perl, since there is no means to express the interface of a function in code. You have to rely on POD to document your interfaces. This makes it very hard to check programs for interface consistency. Also, the variety of parameter passing idioms ("my $arg = shift;", "my ($arg) = @_;", "my %named_args = @_;", "my ($fixed_arg, $ref_to_hash_of_options) = @_;", "my ($fixed_arg, %hash_of_options) = @_;", etc.) in Perl makes for a nice array of hard-to-find bugs when combined with lack of documentation.

That said, for small teams or single persons Perl is *the* most productive language I have seen till now. This is largely because of the amazing CPAN. Says Bruce Eckel (in: Thinking in C++. Prentice Hall, 1995. Translated from my German version.): "The only possibility of achieving really impressive increases in productivity is using other people's libraries."

Christian Lemburg
Brainbench MVP for Perl
http://www.brainbench.com

In reply to Re: Is Perl the End-All? by clemburg
in thread Is Perl the End-All? by bladx

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