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Do a search (separately) for perl, python, ruby on indeed.com perl wins AND it's not a common word unlike the other two in fact, plenty of job postings misspe

Do a search (separately) for perl, python, ruby on indeed.com perl wins AND it's not a common word unlike the other two in fact, plenty of job postings misspell perl as "pearl" and I'm not even including them The fact that perl has more hits doesn't necessarily mean that there are actually more perl jobs than ruby or python jobs, but it certainly means that perl is still around, whether or not you want to tease it EDIT: I write python code every day and agree with pretty much everything else the author said.

lazyjones 14y ago
It could also mean that Perl programmers are in higher demand because there's not enough of them nowdays since all the cool kids are doing Ruby or JS ... (we know we are having a hard time finding Perl people, but then again we are not in Silicon Valley ...)
- Nate75Sanders 14y ago
  I don't claim to know exactly why. I can tell you this, though -- a much crazier statistic is that about 1.5-1.75 years ago I did this same search on indeed.com and while it's difficult to believe now or then, perl not only was bigger than python or ruby, it was bigger than python and ruby combined. Among other reasons, I suspect there are a lot of older perl guys still around who don't blog/write articles because they do other things in their spare time and we don't hear as much about perl compared to node/python/ruby/etc.
  - nandemo 14y ago
    Perl was mainstream well before Python and Ruby became popular. Back in the 90s, anyone who was adopting Linux-based servers was likely using Perl in some way: web companies, small ISPs, even banks. So there are tons of legacy Perl out there.
    - lazyjones 14y ago
      Indeed, back in the mid 90's, pretty much all CGI script examples you could find anywhere were written in Perl.
- ldng 14y ago
  For what I know about Ruby (which is next to nothing), I would expect Ruby shop also scouting for perlist, am I wrong ?
- jerf 14y ago
  Hard time find perl? Sure. Hard time finding someone who knows {PHP, Ruby, Python, real-Javascript}? Not so much, and they cross-train into Perl pretty quickly. (I say "real Javascript" to distinguish those who really know and can write JS vs. those who know how to put a couple of jQuery methods together to drop a couple of event handlers onto the page, then hit their limit.) Especially if they know more than one of that list.
bane 14y ago
I've found a surprising number of jobs want perl skills as only a small part of the job. In case Excel or Access isn't sufficient to process the data as needed, they want somebody who can whip out some Perl and get the job done.
njharman 14y ago
Almost every admin, tools engineer lists perl. That doesn't mean you can get a job programming in perl. Just that you'll have to maintain that nasty bit of legacy .pl cruft X people before you hacked on. There are many jobs where you are programming python

lazyjones 14y ago

It could also mean that Perl programmers are in higher demand because there's not enough of them nowdays since all the cool kids are doing Ruby or JS ... (we know we are having a hard time finding Perl people, but then again we are not in Silicon Valley ...)

Nate75Sanders 14y ago
I don't claim to know exactly why. I can tell you this, though -- a much crazier statistic is that about 1.5-1.75 years ago I did this same search on indeed.com and while it's difficult to believe now or then, perl not only was bigger than python or ruby, it was bigger than python and ruby combined. Among other reasons, I suspect there are a lot of older perl guys still around who don't blog/write articles because they do other things in their spare time and we don't hear as much about perl compared to node/python/ruby/etc.
- nandemo 14y ago
  Perl was mainstream well before Python and Ruby became popular. Back in the 90s, anyone who was adopting Linux-based servers was likely using Perl in some way: web companies, small ISPs, even banks. So there are tons of legacy Perl out there.
  - lazyjones 14y ago
    Indeed, back in the mid 90's, pretty much all CGI script examples you could find anywhere were written in Perl.
ldng 14y ago
For what I know about Ruby (which is next to nothing), I would expect Ruby shop also scouting for perlist, am I wrong ?
jerf 14y ago
Hard time find perl? Sure. Hard time finding someone who knows {PHP, Ruby, Python, real-Javascript}? Not so much, and they cross-train into Perl pretty quickly. (I say "real Javascript" to distinguish those who really know and can write JS vs. those who know how to put a couple of jQuery methods together to drop a couple of event handlers onto the page, then hit their limit.) Especially if they know more than one of that list.

bane 14y ago

I've found a surprising number of jobs want perl skills as only a small part of the job. In case Excel or Access isn't sufficient to process the data as needed, they want somebody who can whip out some Perl and get the job done.

njharman 14y ago

Almost every admin, tools engineer lists perl. That doesn't mean you can get a job programming in perl. Just that you'll have to maintain that nasty bit of legacy .pl cruft X people before you hacked on. There are many jobs where you are programming python