jjn1056 writes "As a follow up to the Gartner announcement regarding Apache, I logged on to their web site to see what they have to say about Perl. I was shocked to find that there were only 93 articles in the database (compared to the 200 listed for Java) and that most of the articles had nothing to do with Perl. For example, a report from August 31st, 2001 was titled "The Gartner Survey on Java Usage in Brazil." The only listing that actually had the word "Perl" in the title was from the middle of 1997, entitled, "Perl: Is it still a Gem?" Searching on "mod_perl" returned 3 results, 2 of which were primarily about Apache. Search for "Servlets" in the same database returns 177 hits, while "JSP" returns 117."
"Is it really the case that Java is that much more popular, or are we just doing a very bad job of getting coverage from highly weighted sources like Gartner? Just to compare, I did the same search at Forrester, and only found 4 articles about Perl, compared to the 200 about Java.
In the era of IT downsizing, can we afford to ignore this trend? Lots of great things are happening in the Perl community, but the outside world is not recognizing it. I really wonder that if Apache can get such positive press, why can't Perl?"
This is a hot topic among some people. My view is that people don't talk about perl the same way they don't talk about English and electricity. It is just there, and lots of people use it, and it works great
Re:URL for their recomendation
wickline on 2001-09-26T18:25:17
whoops, I posted the reply on the wrong gartner article.
I'll go stick it on the other one too.
sorry 'bout the spam folks:)
-matt
Similarly, there will never be any notice taken of Perl at Gartner apart from brief, mostly disparaging comparisons when writing about similar technologies, until there is a "Perl vendor" who can go kiss Gartner's ring. This means attending lots of their conferences, phoning them frequently with the "Perl story" on related developments, and generally arguing the business case for Perl.
I'm hoping the pending PerlMongers/YAS merger will produce someone with the responsibility, time and talent for this kind of advocacy. Otherwise, Gartner, Meta and the rest will continue thinking of Perl as "legacy technology".
Re:Gartner and vendors
jjn1056 on 2001-09-28T15:51:37
What about ActiveState? They've been around for a while and provide enterprise support? They are also actively developing Perl for MS.Net, so maybe they would be enough to convince people Perl is not a legacy technology. ActiveState
jdfox on 2001-09-29T21:31:41
A good idea: I'd be glad to hear of them coordinating with PM/YAS on this, sharing info etc.Well said, sir!
Petruchio on 2001-09-29T23:00:30
That's the best summary of Gartner I've heard... and you even managed not to be disparaging.
:-) Here are some Gartner pronouncements I find give a good assessment of their overall cluefulness:
- 1993: Windows NT (3.5) will have 80% of the desktop market within 2 years of release
- 1994: Internet will grow to 6 million users by 2005
- 1995: Cobol is used in over 65% of new application development
- 1996: Windows NT 4.0 will have 80% of the internet server market by 1998.
- 1996: Cobol is the world's 'premier language for application deployment' and 'there should be no worries about the viability of COBOL for any project on any platform'
- 1987: 75 percent of the Internet services for large enterprises will move to usage-based pricing by 2001
- 1998: '[Y2K] failures in less developed countries, smaller companies, and companies with high global dependencies will cause a negative impact to the world economy'
- 1999: Linux is 'Hype du Jour'. 'The lack of standards in the Linux community, coupled with a lack of key productivity applications and with Unix complexity, will continue to make Linux a poor choice for the mainstream business productivity user'. It soon appears that Microsoft sponsored the study. Gartner Group denies, but also quickly pulls the page from their site. Here's a biased synopsis
