Perl Can Make you Popular

This is just a random thought that I thought I should share with all of you.

I started learning Perl about a month or so ago now to help me develop my personal website. Since then my co-workers have slowly found out that I can code in Perl. Interstingly enough, many co-workers are approaching me to develop small scripts/tools to help ease our routine tasks. I don't mind doing this because I love to code. However, I just think that it's funny that I am now referred to as the "Perl Guy" around the office.

I find it pretty amusing that even in my short time as a Perl Coder, I have become popular around the office because I can make easy things easier and hard things possible. Hey wait a second! I think I read that Perl was designed to make easy things easier and hard things possible somewhere in the Camel book.

Any newbies had simialar experiences? Do some of the veterans recall similar situations?

Update:I guess I should add that all the small tools that I am helping with are not part of my job description. I just do it for fun. It seems that Java has been hitting my workplace pretty hard as well. But I am not in any development department. However, I do agree that I have also been in the position where I have had too many "problems" that belong to others on my plate. I am firm believer that knowledge should be shared and I try to share all that I know. It just seems nice to get some extra attention from time to time. Whether the attention is to help solve a problem or to teach, it is always nice to be noticed.

Good Hunting,
kha0z

Comment on Perl Can Make you Popular

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Re: Perl Can Make you Popular by dws (Chancellor) on Apr 29, 2001 at 07:01 UTC
A lot of "tools" have a high starting friction for solving some problems. Consider the prospect of "whipping together" a web server log analysis program in Java. Uh, no thanks. Perl has a delightfully low starting friction. With it we can solve a lot of gnarly little problems quickly, and people like that. There's a down side to this type of popularity, though it might not surface for a while. If you get the reputation as the guy to go to to get a lot of gnarly little problems solved, you're going to get a long string of gnarly problems. Not only that, but if your environment operations on a "sticky fingers" model of code ownership (i.e., the last person whose fingers touched the code owns it), you could find yourself with a big bag full of ongoing obligations, each waiting to jump up and demand your attention when you'd really rather be spending time on something else. On way of being the popular "Perl guy" while avoiding the burden of owning all of the little scripts that people depend on is to take the "teach them to fish" approach. Rather than solving people's problems directly, teach them a little more Perl each time, until they can solve problems themselves. Good teachers can be popular, too.	[reply]
(jeffa) Re: Perl Can Make you Popular by jeffa (Bishop) on Apr 29, 2001 at 09:21 UTC
Consider yourself lucky. My workplace is slowly being converted to Java, specifically our web site is now being hanlded by JSP. Lately I feel like a minority, everybody keeps telling me to write bash scripts instead of Perl scripts. I make them give one good reason why bash would be a better job than Perl and when they don't give me a good answer, I use Perl. Sigh, I finally implemented a Schwartzian Transform without peeking the other day, showed it in pride to my boss, and was rewarded with "WTF is that ____?" Sshhhh, don't tell anybody I said this, if my co-workers find out, they'll lock me in a padded room and make me code in Java. . . jeffa.toString()	[reply]
Re: Perl Can Make you Popular by Sherlock (Deacon) on Apr 29, 2001 at 08:34 UTC
I'd have to go with dws on this one. I've only been coding in Perl for a little while now, but almost any computer trade has a similar effect. For example, I used to work doing computer support (network maintenance and user training mostly) and it's really nice at first because people like it when you come by and fix the problems they're having and help them with their troubles. You get to know a lot of people and they all get to know you - definately a good thing. Unfortunately, this can sometimes become a bit of a drag. Often, I'd go on a work order to take care of a rather simple problem and I'd find myself gone for hours because someone would spot "The computer guy" and they'd have something they'd like help with. Granted, I find this to be a small price to pay - if I didn't, I wouldn't stay in computers. Frankly, I think it's worth the trouble of helping people to work with computers. Whether you're programming or wiring a network, if you do a good job and you're nice to the people around you - they're bound to like you - just remember, most of them can't do what you're doing for them. In that, it's important to help them learn to do what you're doing for them and to get them to not be afraid to try to do what you do. If you can teach them to perform some of the simpler tasks on their own (even if they'll never actually learn to code Perl as well as you), you can spend your time working on much more interesting projects. - Sherlock	[reply]
Re: Perl Can Make you Popular by BMaximus (Chaplain) on Apr 29, 2001 at 21:00 UTC
Being a Perl programmer can also make you unpopular. I'm being comissioned to create a program for a company that will hopefully garner more profits for it. Unfortunatly by creating this program I have the possibility of eliminating some jobs (something that I don't feel good about, but I have to eat too). So some of the workers are apprehensive about me. At the same time, I'm real popular with the higher ups. But on the other hand. At a former job. We were the stars.I worked with a great team (and hope to pull them back together again if I can). We made the magick happen and were the ones who made sure that everyone had a job to go to each day. :) BMaximus	[reply]
Re: Perl Can Make you Popular by The Alien (Sexton) on May 01, 2001 at 01:13 UTC
No question, there. I started learning Perl to help a friend learn it. At the time, I didn't see any personal need for it. Some time later, I decided I should devote myself to learning Perl because I needed a new language to study. I was working in technical support at the time. A few months later, I was replacing ancient shell script testing tools for our ISP's Network Operations Center with Perl scripts. I was writing other 'helper' scripts internally. I was hired away by an ideaLab! startup to work on a massive indexing and sorting project for MP3, using Perl. Great fun. Two months later they went under and my resume floated around a couple of weeks. Another ISP hired me to design those same tools I originally did in my spare time at the first ISP. This was my first really solid job. I left to become a sysadmin for a research group. Recently, people realized when I said I knew Perl I wasn't kidding and now I have several major projects in the works, above and beyond my normal admin duties. It is a year and half since Perl started making me popular. I agree 100%. All for the love of a Swiss army chainsaw.	[reply]