On 04.08.2020 11:31, paul trader wrote:
On Tue, 4 Aug 2020 at 07:36, James Smith opined:
JS:Others will disagree but the best way I still believe is using mod_perl
JS:- but only if you use it's full power - and you probably need a special
JS:sort of mind set to use - but that can be said for any language.
i will second this motion. mod_perls ability to hook into any step of the
process apache uses to serve up a page makes it easy to design a web
solution that can be tailored for any solution.
Let me agree and add to that.
If your purpose is simply to write "classic web applications" (in the sense of user
interface etc), then there are probably nowadays easier and "more modern" tools than
mod_perl; and indeed it is a problem to find young programmers who already know perl.
(It is not difficult however for a good young programmer, to learn perl. And I would
always prefer a good young programmer who doesn't know perl yet, over a not so good young
programmer who knows everything except perl.)
On the other hand, if your kind of project involves a very tight integration with all
aspects of Apache httpd, then there really isn't any other tool than mod_perl to do it.
It is difficult in a short message like this to detail all the ways that you can interact
with Apache httpd to get things done, but have a look at the schema here :
https://www.askapache.com/s/s.askapache.net/httpd/modules/modsecurity-apache_2.1.4/doc/html-multipage/04-processing-phases.html
and imagine that, with mod_perl, you can interact with Apache httpd and control virtually
everything that happens within any of those boxes (and even between them).
Together, Apache httpd + mod_perl are a tool for creating complex web-based applications,
which has no equivalent anywhere (not with any other webserver, not with any other
programming language, not with any kind of OS)(in the open-source/free world).
In addition, using mod_perl does not prevent you from using any other Apache add-on module
or any other development tool in addition (in whatever programming language you choose).
mod_perl just allows you to do more, and faster.
A possible problem with mod_perl may be its continued support, considering the kind of
discussions (hopefully temporary) going on at the moment in the perl 5.x/7.x development
community.
But I believe that there is such a wide existing base of solid web applications based on
perl, mod_perl and the (also incomparable) CPAN library, that any idea of dropping support
for them, would be for some time quite far in the future.
P.S. As an example : I am at the moment working on expanding an Apache/mod_perl user
authentication module, that has to be able to authenticate users using either of HTTP
Basic, LDAP, SAML, SPNEGO (Windows), OpenId, SiteMinder (tm), client IP and and login-form
based authentication, while delivering a consistent "user profile" to follow-up web
applications.
And I cannot think of any other tool than Apache/mod_perl which would allow me
to do this.
(except this : https://metacpan.org/pod/Apache2::AuthAny, but that is also
mod_perl based)
