Re: Customers concerned about Web development using Perl

Hi!

clients have specifically expressed a concern about the ability to maintain our/their Web apps written in Perl should my business go bust

That is -of course- a legitimate concern. However it is not perl-specific. If your system would work with PHP, the concern would be the same.

Possibilities to address this concern would be

show that perl is a mainstream-language, nothing exotic (e.g use the Tiobe Index)
show that there are thousands of capable perl-programmers around ... not only PHP-coders
show that your system/code is well-documented, so anyone can take over
prove that your system is as stable as others (after all you are in business for 10 years)

So the programming-language you use should not be the biggest issue. However (as CountZero wrote) you will still face the competition of the open-source CMS systems...

HTH, Rata

Comment on Re: Customers concerned about Web development using Perl

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Re^2: Customers concerned about Web development using Perl by bradcathey (Prior) on Jun 21, 2010 at 11:42 UTC
However it is not perl-specific. If your system would work with PHP, the concern would be the same. Great point and one that some of the other responders implied. The challenge I take from your reply is to make sure my Perl is coded well, "best practices," and well documented so that another Perl coder could jump in quickly. And thanks for the reference to the Tiobe Index, very enlightening. —Brad "The important work of moving the world forward does not wait to be done by perfect men." George Eliot	[reply]
Re^2: Customers concerned about Web development using Perl by dws (Chancellor) on Jun 22, 2010 at 04:57 UTC
That is -of course- a legitimate concern. However it is not perl-specific. If your system would work with PHP, the concern would be the same. If PHP weren't as popular, the concern might be the same. One of the questions that a serious client is going to ask themselves is, "If the vendor goes bust and I inherit the code base (because I was smart enough to write an escrow agreement into the contract), am I going to be able to find people with sufficient skill, and at a reasonable rate, to maintain and extend the product?" That's an easier Yes if you're dealing with Java, C#, and maybe PHP and Rails.	[reply]
Re^3: Customers concerned about Web development using Perl by CountZero (Bishop) on Jun 23, 2010 at 16:00 UTC
" ... am I doing to be able to find people with sufficient skill, and at a reasonable rate, to maintain and extend the product?" That's an easier Yes if you're dealing with Java, C#, and maybe PHP and Rails. What makes you think that? Perl programmers are not that rare, nor --I think-- that expensive. It is not because there are more Java/C#/PHP/Rails programmers that it will be any less painful to find someone willing to maitain an "inherited" codebase. CountZero A program should be light and agile, its subroutines connected like a string of pearls. The spirit and intent of the program should be retained throughout. There should be neither too little or too much, neither needless loops nor useless variables, neither lack of structure nor overwhelming rigidity." - The Tao of Programming, 4.1 - Geoffrey James	[reply]