A week ago, gwhite wrote in his When is it worth it to move to a Framework?:

I have a twelve year old cross platform CGI application that I produce for 20-30 new clients every year... In the next few months, I am going to internationalize the application and do my standard round of improvements and tweaks that I do every year.

Now, that's what I am striving for.

I think that to varying degrees, Perl has a big influence in the lives of many monks. I would appreciate it if you would share how it has influenced your life. Some of us might be in search of courage or inspiration!

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: How has Perl influenced your life?
by marto (Cardinal) on Oct 22, 2010 at 12:31 UTC

    Perl culture and community spirit has had a positive affect on my life I believe. I've ranted about this in the past in the CB and more perhaps more notably here.

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Re: How has Perl influenced your life?
by merlyn (Sage) on Oct 24, 2010 at 20:27 UTC
    Perl has been my primary source of income for nearly 2 decades. I'd say that's a significant impact. :)

    -- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker

    The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119.

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Re: How has Perl influenced your life?
by luis.roca (Deacon) on Oct 24, 2010 at 22:18 UTC

    Boring problems like, "How can I be more productive?" are far more interesting.
    Hard problems like, "How can I grow creatively?" have been enlightened.
    That's just within my first year of learning Perl.


    "...the adversities born of well-placed thoughts should be considered mercies rather than misfortunes." — Don Quixote
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Re: How has Perl influenced your life?
by locked_user sundialsvc4 (Abbot) on Oct 22, 2010 at 13:23 UTC

    It is nice to have a piece of computer software that produces some amount of residual income.   (Mine happens to be written in Delphi.)   Yes, it can change your life; or at least, make it (at times, at times not) a little more comfortable.

Re: How has Perl influenced your life?
by BerntB (Deacon) on Oct 28, 2010 at 09:57 UTC

    I got a double whammy from being ill around the big IT death. I considered changing work area away from computers.

    In the end, I said to myself -- "I'll continue with computers but just doing things I love; I should smile when going to work."

    It was quite an easy choice what to work with.

    So Perl has given me back work motivation. The fun parts, except the people in the community, are the productivity and that the language works despite breaking all normal design rules.

    (Edit: Made a bit clearer, grammar.)

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Re: How has Perl influenced your life?
by JavaFan (Canon) on Oct 22, 2010 at 01:22 UTC
    I don't see the connection between the quote and Perl being a big influence in ones live. Or do you consider doing a job maintaining a 12 year old Perl program as a big influence on your life? How would that differ from working in a pencil factory for 12 years?
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      You can't take your work home :)
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