Re: Can Perl be more than a hobby language?

Point out that many companies like Amazon.com and TicketMaster are heavily invested in Perl. Tell them about my company we are Sunflower Broadband a Cable/Phone/Internet provider in Lawrence, KS. Our house language is Perl. Occassionally we have to toss in a little C or javascript, but far more than 90% of our code is in Perl.

Or send them to this link I got from a fellow monk (I forget which one): Programming Jobs by Language. You can see from it that Perl is not most popular, but it sure beats PHP.

Phil

Comment on Re: Can Perl be more than a hobby language?

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re^2: Can Perl be more than a hobby language? by Anonymous Monk on Nov 15, 2006 at 16:23 UTC
Point out that many companies like Amazon.com and TicketMaster are heavily invested in Perl. Blech. There's a short list of companies that has been mentioned for many years as companies that use Perl. I won't deny that they use Perl (although I know more C and Java programmers that work or have worked for amazon than Perl programmers), but that's just anecdotical evidence. The fact that a handful of companies do use Perl doesn't prove it isn't much easier to make a living using Java or C. I'm not arguing that you can't make a living using Perl, I've doing so for more than a decade myself (although most of the time, it's the result that counts, Perl was my choice, but had I used Python or Java, I would have made the amount of money), but coming up with the same, short list, of companies that use Perl for many years is very meager evidence. I do get about two phone calls, and a dozen emails from recruiters a week, trying to interest me for a position. And while my resume oozes Perl, and only mentions Java once (as having followed a three day course many moons ago), I get more Java opportunities passed in my direction than Perl opportunities. You can make a living with Perl - but I'd be surprised if making a living with Java wasn't easier. (That is, finding a Java job is easier than finding a Perl job, live itself is easier with Perl than with Java).	[reply]
Re^3: Can Perl be more than a hobby language? by philcrow (Priest) on Nov 15, 2006 at 16:52 UTC
Please read my whole post and not just the first line. I explained that my company is an all (or almost all perl shop). I also provided a link to a graph showing that you are correct. Perl is not as popular as other languages. The OP asked for help in defending his desire to work in Perl. I was pointing out that there are large and small companies using perl. While it is not the most popular language, it is quite possible to earn money with Perl, rather than using it only as a hobby. I don't think the OP was directly asking how easy it would be to get a perl job, merely whether such jobs exist at all. They do. Phil	[reply]
Re^2: Can Perl be more than a hobby language? by TomDLux (Vicar) on Nov 16, 2006 at 18:19 UTC
Interesting to modify that query by adding C + C++. It shows C++ as doing better than Perl though not as well as Java, but C still has higher demand than any of the others. -- `TTTATCGGTCGTTATATAGATGTTTGCA`	[reply]