Ask HN: What are your thoughts of a Perl-based startup? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What are your thoughts of a Perl-based startup?

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I have been offered to join a Perl-based startup as Product Manager. As far as I know, Perl is no longer very popular, especially in startup circles. My issue would be the future hiring of good developers... would it make it harder to attract them?

Also, if I do take on this position I might have the possibility of switching to a different language, transitioning slowly over time. Python would be my first choice for a number of reasons. What are the best arguments in favor of python over perl?

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I programmed quite a lot in both Perl and Python. Both have their ups and downs, but - as mentioned before me - while Python may seem cleaner and better on the surface, it can - and often is - made into as massy as anything else.

Some of the python stuff also makes me want to go to a corner and cry (significant whitespace being very high on that list, the GIL being another pain in the backside at times, and some of the python modules are so very poor it's not even funny).

In my opinion, the horribility of Perl is greatly exaggerated. As for good perl coders out there - I have no about that. I'm on the opinion that a good programmer is mostly language agnostic, and can pick up a new language very fast. If you look for those, it won't be too hard to find a few that's willing to speak perl.

The technology doesn't matter. Customers don't care. Developing a good product matters.

Is the product good, or bad?

Good luck finding a front-end Perl developer.

Hypothetically:

There are 50,000 great Python programmers available and 5,000 startups using Python.

There are 10,000 great Perl programmers available and 50 startups using Perl.

Which is going to be easier to hire for?

There's no real technical benefits of Python over Perl. If anything Perl has the edge due to Moose/CPAN, etc.

The biggest "problem" is the stigma and that's only an issue of perception. Users don't actually care what hammer you use.

I've used Perl at a few startups (currently do, in fact) and have no trouble writing and deploying great code and staying busy. Except for Pygame and NLTK, Python has no advantages over Perl in my experience.

Hiring Perl programmers is easy. Just attend a YAPC, PerlMonger meeting or other and present your company and your product well.

It's harder to hire Perl developers than Python or Ruby. I recruit for all of these positions, and recruiting for Perl positions takes significantly longer, at least in the SF Bay Area.

i talked to a guy at google who said python was worse than perl because "everybody knows perl code is an unmaintainbe mess. python gives the illusion of being better, but in practice it's just as bad."

- higher productivity - better ecosystem - more talent available - code doesn't make people vomit

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