I know I'm responding to an old node, but as I went through the site trying to catch up on everything I've missed (having been forced into evaluation java applicaton server solutions) I just had to put in my two cents.

As usual I feel stuck in between corporate requirements and a language that appeals to my personal sense of creation. Understanding the needs of one and the limitations of the other is a very frustrating position.

Java has become the wave in large established corporations for one reason - J2EE standards (and a frontal media/sales assault). J2EE gives large corporations the ability to tie together large disperate data sources, via CORBA, DCOM, RMI, in a way that hundreds of developers can work on simultaneously and cooperatively, all the while establishing a common API accross the enterprise.

If perl desires a piece of that market it needs to be able to construct stubs and wrappers that allow perl OO code to wrap into the J2EE standard (or even better wrap the J2EE standards into it!). But perl is a language of creativity and straight line to the point solutions, As such, it will always be a leading language in flexibility, and innovation. Perl is the ice cutter for where java wishes it could go.

After evaluating eight of the leading application servers I'm totally under-impressed. These are all poorly maintained works in progress with a big price tag and a hundred heavyweight acronymns for nothing more than a J2EE enabled web server. Java is not better than perl, but it is easier to manange and scale, therefore, the management of large organization can only seriously consider Java solutions at this time.