Learning Perl for Web Development? [closed]

Question

I am a PHP developer and practically everything I do is written in PHP. This is fine. However, I get a bit bored and I would like to pick up something else.

I have dabbled in Python and found it interesting but not really interesting enough to pursue. I had a play with Ruby but wasn't really keen on it.

I have been having a little look at Perl and it looks interesting. However, I want to learn something that will add value going forwards. I often hear Perl is a dying language, however it is still in active development.

I have looked on Job boards and have had mixed results. There certainly seem to be a fairly large number of sys admin jobs.

Basically, is Perl learning, especially in terms of web development? Or would I be better sticking with Python or maybe even picking up something like Java?

Answer 1

It is definitely possible to use Perl for web development. It is true that Perl5 is somewhat dated, and lack some modern language constructs like classes. It is, however, possible to develop in an object oriented style in Perl5, but it is awkward. I do not use Perl5 myself, but I have high respect for the language.

One of Perl's strengths is the CPAN package network (www.cpan.org). For web development you can use Catalyst

You should definitively keep an eye on the next generation of Perl, that is Perl6. It is a fundamentally different language from Perl5, and I do find it fascinating. Check out Rakudo Perl6.

Answer 2

Javascript ? And its less well know delights ... functional programming, closures, self-invoking functions ?

Answer 3

I think Perl is like a Dinosaur that's still around. It's huge if used properly, but many think it's too old and difficult to handle. I saw Perl only once in a productive system at an university (and had to work with it), but they switched to Java Servlets with Tomcat.

I suppose Perl is mostly used for small tasks but not complete websites.

So probably something like JSP, Servlets or ASP.NET is nowadays far more common than Perl.

(I never used Ruby or Python, can't say anything about them.)