Ok guys, I'm nowhere as good a programmer as many people on this list, but a) I do have patience with beginners, b) I'm convinced and c) maybe I can do something in terms of documentation, if only to fix missing links. And d) I'd love to see my name somewhere as a contributor, even at the very end and in small font.
So, where do I start ?

Steven Siebert wrote:
I'm relatively new to mod_perl - moving to a new job who's application
is solely written in it.  This is a return to Perl for me, having
worked in PHP, Java, and .NET since Perl 4.  As I'm learning to love
mod_perl and Perl in general, perhaps it's a good time for me to
contribute back by writing perl/mod_perl blogs and tutorials to help
others easing in from other languages (written with a set of
assumptions).  I've seen the "to-do" list, if you will, on the
mod_perl Advocacy page
(http://perl.apache.org/docs/general/advocacy/advocacy.html) but not
sure how dated this is or what is the best to tackle.

Let me know how to get involved - it is my job security after all =).
Seriously, though, the flexibility of mod_perl is just not available
in many of the other languages and I think it's "don't know what you
don't know" sort of thing...so much work is done in the application
code when it could be solved with a few lines using mod_perl at the
httpd abstract layer.  I have a blog site but if perl.apache.org
desires host tutorials and blogs, so much the better (better
discoverability).

I've also noticed the mod_perl advocacy mailing list is all but dead.
Perhaps this is the best channel to bring these issues up?

Regards,

Steve

On Mon, Nov 10, 2008 at 8:59 AM, Adam Prime <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
André Warnier wrote:
The responses there are indeed a bit scary.  It feels like we're a dying
breed.
I believe this is to a large extent a "marketing issue" for perl in
general, and mod_perl by extension, with regard to the younger programmers
generation.  At least in various European countries I know, perl is not
really being taught in programming schools as a "serious" programming
language for applications. These young people have all heard the name, but
seem to consider it as a powerful but somewhat messy scripting language to
create system administration scripts.
I am personally doing my best to introduce these newbies to the beauties
of perl and mod_perl, but it feels rather lonely sometimes.
Java and PHP seem definitely more popular, or better-known.
I agree that this does echo perl's problems in general, but mod_perl has a
long history of not really being very good at marketing itself.  I know
Perrin and some other people did try at the launch of mod_perl2, but that
effort (and the associated mailing list) has long since dried up.

- A surprising number of people are running mod_perl under the worker MPM.
What is so surprising about this ? (genuine curious question)
It's surprising to me, and probably to Torsten, because the perceived common
wisdom is to run prefork, because worker may or may not be as well tested,
and has all the bonus issues related to thread-safeness.

- the documentation could use some work.  Specifically more tutorial /
intro kind of stuff.
Agreed.  There is a definite need also for something like a new mod_perl
Guide and Cookbook all-in-one, updated for mod_perl 2 and with a section
about the framework/template systems mentioned above. Written in a style
meant to show that these are not old-fashioned technologies only practised
by oldies like me (us?).
What I mean is that to cover all one needs to know to create some serious
web applications in Java, you'd need at least 6 thick volumes, while for
Perl 800-1000 pages would be more than enough.
O'Reilly, where are you ?
Honestly, I think this stuff is currently better handled by the community.
 As such, i'm going to take a stab at writing some very basic intro /
tutorial kind of documentation to be added to perl.apache.org. When i
started with mod_perl 1, the Guide on thought the "guide" perl.apache.org
was amazing, but it seems to me that mod_perl 2 doesn't have that in the
same way.  Much of the content has been ported over to the 2.0 section, but
there are many pages that haven't been updated from the 1.0 tree at all.

Adam



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