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Perl was the #3 language on the Tiobe ranking in 2005. It had massive codebases in banks and other industries. In 2019 it was ranked #19 and the incompatible re
by vii 6y ago
Perl was the #3 language on the Tiobe ranking in 2005. It had massive codebases in banks and other industries. In 2019 it was ranked #19 and the incompatible replacement, Perl6, is #93. Breaking backwards compatibility is hugely costly. It creates immense work as people have to validate that new versions of previously working code meet the implicit, accumulated requirements.
Old code will always seem old fashioned. It will not address modern concerns. However, the option to keep using it is very valuable!
- nindalf 6y agoTwo things - TIOBE is meaningless. And secondly, Perl is a valid example, but so is Python. After a 10 year painful transition, Python is more popular than ever. It's used more than any other language bar Javascript.
- pjmlp 6y agoNot really, plenty of MBA type managers use it as a measure to allow for language adoption on their projects.
- hota_mazi 6y ago> Two things - TIOBE is meaningless. Pick any other language survey of your choice and I guarantee you it will generally agree with the TIOBE.
- rumanator 6y agoAgree with what? TIOBE is just a vague measure of online chatter. I mean, right now TIOBE's site has a section on how Go, Swift, and SQL are tied. What is there to agree with? I mean, you can add "burrito" to TIOBE and the result would be just as meaningful.
- dgellow 6y agoThat's maybe a good name for a successful programming language :) TIOBE driven design is the future!
- coliveira 6y agoThat may be true about Python, but despite of the horrible transition from 2 to 3. That transition is a source of frustration to anyone who had to maintain code across the versions 2 and 3.
- nojvek 6y agoAt my current workplace it took at-least 6 months of 2 engineer efforts. That’s about 200k of sunk cost + the opportunity cost of them working elsewhere. Plus other people who got pulled in, it’s easily about 300k to migrate from oy2 -> py3. We still have a mumbo jumbo mess of py2 scripts lying around.
- jdoege 6y agoThe language formerly known as Perl 6 is now called Raku so there are no more backwards compatibility issues. Perl 7 is the new opportunity for backwards incompatibility (and probably doesn't even have an entry on Tiobe which would make your argument even stronger!) Also, Tiobe is about as interesting as a gossip column. There are many reasons to pick one language over another, but ranking on Tiobe will never be one of them.