Perl stay ahead of the curve into Web 2.0 and 3.0 applications?

perl has as much to do w/ ajax, as assembly, c and ruby. AJAX apps just make HTTP calls. It's the browser (stupid).

Moreover, if they aren’t considering Perl, what are the reasons - what are the areas that need to be addressed in order to turn Perl into a respectable corporate contender?

Money. Java came up that way. :P

This isn’t the first time the question has come up, but why are people frothing over Python or Ruby when Perl still has so much to offer?

'cause they push features not normally seen in script language, where perl pushes flexibilty and has been around forever.

Perhaps, like Java, Perl could have its own ‘enterprise’ version. This isn’t a new thought, others have brought it up in the past, including P5EE and Enterprise Perl. Personally, I think that it should be called Perl In the Enterprise (PIE), but that is mostly because I think that, like sex, food is a good selling point.

Lemme correct this sentence. "Perhaps perl could have it's own Enterprise. There were two attemps which I'll bring up. I won't explain why they failed. I won't attempt to give a word of guidance. I'll just make a bland joke here."

Adding assertions, native compilation, and a snazzy IDE would sweeten the pot even further. Finally, some nice frameworks for web, CORBA, and SOA would be nice.

All native compilation means is oyu have a semi-portable binary. We have a snazzy IDE, catalyst, and SOAP for RPC. Binary protocols suck when being used between two companies. "Did your package exceed size? Let's break out netcat and a hex editor to find out."

That said, I think it goes without saying that features such as error handling and excellent logging facilities are equally attractive to companies spanning the range from startup to blue chip.

Logging facilities are easy to write. Every language has a log4something. Here's a tip for you btw, few people use java's internal logging system. They use log4j. As for error handling, yes, perl's error handling isn't ideal. Coding patterns easily solve this.

Well, that is really it for this first installment. Not a lot of meat here, but just some ideas to get everyone thinking. Stay tuned as I start looking at projects and modules out there in-depth. Finally, if your organization uses Perl for Enterprise class applications, and don’t mind discussing how Perl has or hasn’t met needs and expectations, drop me a line.

Witch! Witch! Burn her at the stake! Or with a steak. Next please.