Paul Kraus wrote:
That would be putting words in my mouth, I didn't say those were the only reasons, but those are certainly 3.So its more of a cost justification then it is for functionality. It seem Perl and cgi would generate a greater overhead. I have no lover of Microsoft but in my business I have to choose the right tool not necessarily the "Moral" tool :)
Ok you got me started ;-)....
<soapbox>
Another reason would be the wealth of modules available, in particular DBI for accessing the database, CGI for doing normal request things (cookies, etc.), HTML::Mason for embedding the programming into the HTML source, mod_perl (apples and oranges?) for handling all levels of the request. Why reinvent the wheel when there is no need.
For me the biggest reason is control, with perl and mod_perl I can control the complete request. Sometimes a 2 line perl script is all that is needed to effectively accomplish a task.
#!/usr/bin/perl
print "Location: http://danconia.org\n\n";;
Is a perfectly valid CGI script, and there is no need for the overhead of automagically parsing the query string, setting up a session object, etc. etc. (Granted some would argue that calling the perl interpreter...blah blah blah)
Another reason not to use ASP is it allows you to easily strip out the HTML from the programming. For instance in my old development shop we had some perl programmers that didn't know HTML and some HTML coders that didn't know a lick of Perl and everything worked tremendously because all they had to understand was the communication protocol not the implementation on either side. Some places prefer their developers to muck with both, or use a pass of strategy, we felt that broke down communication and didn't work nearly as well.
Security, I would much rather run a CGI through Perl on Apache than run ASP on IIS.
How about the ability to embed C routines into your Perl.
Best reason for me is probably that I already know Perl, and while this isn't necessarily a reason to choose it over the others if you are starting a fresh project, but it is important when re-evaluating a project's goals.
Lack of dependency on a single entity, while this gets a little bit into the Open Source issue, it is a very real concept. I don't think M$ is going anywhere soon, but with Perl you can always lift the hood and mess with the engine if it doesn't run quite the way you want, with closed source you are bound to their development schedule and economical and political goals, rather than your own.
</soapbox>
For me personally there has never been an instance where I could accomplish something easier and with a finer degree of control in ASP rather than Perl. But there have been numerous times when I spent significant time hacking together a solution in ASP that I constantly thought "Boy this is so easy to do in Perl." As for MONO or even Java which I guess is what you meant possibly by Sun I can't really say I haven't had enough experience at them. Besides, you didn't even mention PHP, which might be my first choice for HTML embedded programming.
These certainly aren't the only reasons, and not even all of mine...
http://danconia.org
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, December 12, 2002 11:28 AM
To: Paul Kraus; Perl
Subject: RE: Perl Cgi/ Why?
Possibly better asked to beginners-cgi, but in any case.
ASP -> $$, M$ (and not just that it is an evil empire ;-), but portability) MONO -> vaporware Sun -> $$, apples and oranges?
I am sure I will right a <soapbox> on this later, but for now those seem like 3 good quick reasons.
http://danconia.org ------------------------------------------------ On Thu, 12 Dec 2002 11:07:46 -0500, "Paul Kraus" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:With ASP.net, MONO, and sun implication why would someone still use Perl for website design. This is not a flame but simply asking for advice. I use Perl for reports and linux/unix/windows scripting. However what is to gain by using it for the web over these other technologies? What are some of the things you guys use Perl to accomplish with your website and why do you use Perl?
Paul Kraus
Network Administrator
PEL Supply Company
216.267.5775 Voice
216-267-6176 Fax
www.pelsupply.com
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