

The Perl Foundation got $100,000 donation from the Craigslist Charitable Fund - yko
http://news.perlfoundation.org/2012/01/craigslist-charitable-fund-don.html

======
avar
This is very nice. Between this and Booking.com's (disclaimer: I work there)
€100,000 donation just over a month ago TPF is really getting on track for
having large corporate sponsorship from organizations who recognize how
valuable Perl is for their infrastructure.

I talked to some of the TPF people at Booking.com's donation event and they
expressed desires to have more paid-for developers working on the Perl 5 core,
and they're really gearing up as an organization for making that happen.

One thing of note for those unfamiliar with the Perl community: Notice how
both of these big grants are earmarked for Perl 5 development, not Perl 6
development.

By now Perl 6 is viewed as best an interesting research project by
organizations using Perl 5 in production.

I don't mean that as a comment to detract away from what the Perl 6 developers
are doing, but to point out that it's a very different pattern than what's
happening with the next generation of Python, Ruby, PHP etc. runtimes.

1\. [http://news.perlfoundation.org/2012/01/bookingcom-
sponsors-1...](http://news.perlfoundation.org/2012/01/bookingcom-
sponsors-100000-to.html)

~~~
smosher
_By now Perl 6 is viewed as best an interesting research project by
organizations using Perl 5 in production._

As a member of an organization using Perl 5 (among many other languages), I
should probably speak up. Though we haven't donated many thousands to TPF, it
may be worth noting that with a minimal set of modules, similar stability and
performance guarantee within an order of magnitude Perl 5's, we would be using
Perl 6 without question. (With that alone it wouldn't replace all of our Perl
5 code, but we would be using more Perl overall as a result.) In fact Niecza
is temptingly close to that status at the moment if you factor interop into
the equation.

We have a highly polyglot environment, so introducing a new language to that
is something that can be taken in stride. I assume a lot of Perl 6 reluctance
comes from unfamiliarity, but for us it's more a matter of overall
reliability. I find Perl 6 is better able to represent program logic, and I am
sure having it in our environment would improve prototyping and maintenance
considerably.

~~~
andrewvc
Here's the question I have.

Perl5 -> Perl6 is not a natural progression. It's such a radically different
language that going to say Python or Ruby is nearly as similar a change. Why's
it obvious to you guys?

~~~
smosher
We have some Python code kicking around, but it hasn't penetrated our codebase
very much, and in fact has never made itself integral. We have one very small
yet important tool that had an implementation in Python but it was eventually
rewritten. While has always been a very important tool, it was never a
service. We've never (to the best of my knowledge) had Python in any of our
server code, it just hasn't come to pass.

As for Ruby, I think the closest we came was a Redmine install. I don't have
enough experience with Ruby to pass any judgments, but to me it feels like a
poor compromise between some other languages. I don't think I'd mind replacing
our use of PHP with it but it would be a harder sell than I would be in for
and it simply wouldn't be worth it, considering the value of homogeneity
within the existing PHP projects (or alternatively, the cost of rewrites.)
Besides, I see no reason to avoid Perl here, virtually all of the PHP is
database driven... DBI is just phenomenal.

Even though we're willing to take on another language it still must be
justified. I suppose I have to answer the real question now. My answer is: I
don't know about 'progression' (there's certainly a discontinuity) but I think
Perl 6 _is_ a natural evolution of Perl—not specifically Perl 5, but a truly
100% organic product of Perl culture. It also has some specific enhancements
that solve real problems I have identified in our code which wouldn't be
possible without a break of some kind.

------
draegtun
A few months ago there was this discussion on HN - _Why is Funding Perl Core
Development So Difficult?_ (<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3247925>).

Unfortunately Perl doesn't have a _Sugar Daddy_ :( However it does have a few
benevolent Uncles :)

Here's the breakdown of the last 12 months contributions...

    
    
      $10,000   Jun 2011  Vienna.pm
      $10,000   Jul 2011  Booking.com
      $10,000   Jul 2011  cPanel
      €100,000  Jan 2012  Booking.com
      $100,000  Jan 2012  Craigslist
    

ref: Figures by trawling TPF website. Hopefully I have this correct!
[http://news.perlfoundation.org/2011/06/viennapm-donates-
up-t...](http://news.perlfoundation.org/2011/06/viennapm-donates-up-
to-10000.html) | [http://news.perlfoundation.org/2011/07/bookingcom-
sponsor-p5...](http://news.perlfoundation.org/2011/07/bookingcom-
sponsor-p5cmf.html) | [http://news.perlfoundation.org/2011/07/cpanel-
sponsor-p5cmf....](http://news.perlfoundation.org/2011/07/cpanel-
sponsor-p5cmf.html) | [http://news.perlfoundation.org/2012/01/bookingcom-
sponsors-1...](http://news.perlfoundation.org/2012/01/bookingcom-
sponsors-100000-to.html) | [http://news.perlfoundation.org/2012/01/craigslist-
charitable...](http://news.perlfoundation.org/2012/01/craigslist-charitable-
fund-don.html)

~~~
adam-_-
Hard to find, unfortunately, but NET-A-PORTER (disclaimer: I work there) also
donated $10,000. As well as LOVEFiLM, Oslo.pm, and Dijkmat donating various
amounts. Source: <http://www.perlfoundation.org/previous_homepage_news>

------
perlgeek
And TPF can put the money to good use; recently (2010 or 2011, don't remember
exactly) they started to pay one core developer (Dave Mitchell) to work on bug
fixes and refactors that nobody else wanted to do. Later Nicholas Clark got a
similar grant, and both have been used to great effect.

I'm not deeply invovled the p5 developers, but it doesn't look like these
grant create envy in other contributors, judging from the development speed.

~~~
draegtun
re: Dave Mitchel / core development - Yes it was 2010 on the back of a $50K
grant from Booking.com in Dec 2008:
[http://news.perlfoundation.org/2011/12/grant-from-
bookingcom...](http://news.perlfoundation.org/2011/12/grant-from-bookingcom-
conclude.html)

------
ibrow
I rather like this, especially the quote:

[Jim Buckmaster] added, "It was unclear at first how best to give something
back to Perl. Fortunately there was more than one way to do it."

------
soapdog
On a related topic, can someone recommend a good book for learning perl these
days? I never learned it and think it is a good skill.

~~~
jonathansizz
Depending on how adept you already are at programming:

1] Learning Perl (6th Edition) is excellent for beginners.

2] Modern Perl (2nd Edition was just published; free ebook version should be
out by next week) assumes a basic knowledge of both programming in general and
of Perl in particular, but is well-written and very clear.

3] Programming Perl (the 4th Edition covering Perl 5.14 will be a huge update
from 3rd Edition (published in 2000 for Perl 5.6!); should be published in
February, according to O'Reilly) is the famous Camel book and the ultimate
Perl reference.

The Perl Cookbook is a little outdated now, although it's not too bad and
there is talk on the mailing lists of updating it. But it's not really aimed
at learning Perl though.

As already mentioned, PerlMonks is also a great website to browse.

~~~
soapdog
Thanks for the tips! Will get the modern perl book and the new camel book when
the new edition is published!

=)

