At least, that's what this article said on eWeek's list of "Top 18 Programming Languages for 2011". This is the third time I've seen Perl listed in the news in the past six months or so as a language in demand. Maybe it's just me, but that seems like more coverage recently than we've had in a long time, which I think is great.

Anyway, thought you all would like to know our favorite language is ranking pretty well on the "must have" lists and in the job marketplace!

Y'all have a fantastic Winter holiday of your choice!
  • Comment on Perl "up and coming" programming language of coming year

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Re: Perl "up and coming" programming language of coming year
by JavaFan (Canon) on Dec 22, 2010 at 22:58 UTC
    The article is refering to the TIOBE index, which indicates PHP has a rating that is 3 times higher than Perl, and even Visual BASIC has a rating more than twice the rating of Perl. Python is between Visual BASIC and PHP.

    To me, the figure agree with how I've been seeing Perl for the past dozen years: Perl is strong in a niche of the market. And it'll remain so for quite some time.

    And I'm quite satisfied by that.

[reply]
      Re. the Tiobe index: " The popular search engines Google, MSN, Yahoo!, Wikipedia and YouTube are used to calculate the ratings".

      So lots of script-kiddies are Googling for PHP instead of getting formal training, buying a good book or even just RTFM. If a language has good built-in documentation then it will perform badly on Tiobe, little or no documentation means it does well. Tiobe is a useful indicator, but only of what people are doing searches for.
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Re: Perl "up and coming" programming language of coming year
by Anonymous Monk on Jan 06, 2011 at 06:10 UTC

    Php is on the rise. Want to know why? Facebook is written in Php and too much Php news is attached with Facebook. So just on the basis of 'He says, she says' many people are jumping onto Php.

    This is precisely what happened with Python when Google was blooming. And with Perl during the days of Amazon and Yahoo. All languages have their day in the sun and then new ones come to replace them.

    Besides if a language needs real crazy adoption, some one needs to build something cool and which can make money. People will jump on it like mad. Even if language in itself is fit for nothing. 95% of all programmers just want something to get their work done, if that tool is famous and in the news it gets picked up rapidly.

    Want Perl to be famous and used widely, Build something cool using it. And also build a business around it. And then see the magic.

[reply]

      PHP was on the rise before FB because it's terribly easy to build useful websites with it. It would be good PR to have a big cool app which was very publicly Perl and had easy plugin authoring in Perl.

      Perl however was *not* popular because it was used at Amazon and Yahoo. It was used there because it was so useful. It's still used just about everywhere to some degree for the same reason. Most Perl hackers back in the day were surprised to hear where Perl was used. They just liked using it. And the idea of a language being "famous" is kind of stupid. When TMZ starts covering Perl I'm headed for the mountains to start my Luddite days.

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