I've been using Mason for a while now and am pretty happy with it, however, I've started running into the typical code separation problems one gets with this paradigm (controller code bound up in view leading to refactoring). Thus I'm starting to evaluate perl MVC frameworks, and Catalyst seems to be the thing that's mentioned most often.

One thing I absolutely hate about MVC frameworks is being "painted into a corner". Especially with things like CRUD. SQL is not that tough, and even though CRUD helps with a large number of simple tables, the core tables in your schema tend to require understanding SQL and your database pretty well. So I'd like to use DBI most of the time, at least until I'm comfortable with the places that a particular ORM is actually helpful. I'm not sure of the ORM that comes with Catalyst, but I've used several, and am not a big fan (not saying there aren't decent ones, but people tend to underestimate the problems in this space).

I'm not interested in saving 20 minutes writing some stupid application (who cares?). I'm more interested in a tool that allows one to write large, manageable web applications in a perl-ish way. Thus, I want a framework that does MVC, is fast, doesn't eliminate freedom in ways that are important (swapping out components, assumption of models that are too simple, etc.). Of course it has to be very perl-ish, have a decent sized community, and execute quickly.

Can someone who has experience with Catalyst provide some guidance as to how well it stacks up in the points above? Also, what's the best way to evaluate Catalyst (e.g. particular web articles which illuminate, etc.)?

In reply to Catalyst versus Mason by zerohero

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