This is one of those posts that make me wonder whether it was good that my interest for Perl never became tangled with my career to the point of defining it, being a sysadmin/devop/SRE/whatever. I'been loving the language for more than 15 years, although judging from the people at Perl conferences I am still on the "younger" side of the attendees.
Attending the conferences (well, one per year actually) has been the contents of my "holidays" for several years and a place where I learnt and met several good friends, although I've grown more and more disillusioned with the steering of the language development and especially with the interactions of preminent (whatever that means) figures in the community (not all of them, mind you).
I still remember a talk in the FOSDEM Perl devroom in 2016 describing the community as mature: however, age aside, I am not that convinced that several loud members of it fit with that concept. Any volunteer-based community, especially in tech, can be extremely frustrating to deal with and be a part of, and Larry's waning presence as a respected glue-like figure has been an additional hit.
Sorry too not to have seen Liz and Wendy around as much recently, just as much as I am pained for the rift and conflict between the Perl and Raku communities, which I personally don't see as useful to either community as more than a few seem to think.
If the part of the community I've seen causing needless flames and hurt (not referring to those expressing their dissatisfaction with the current situation) with their behaviour can be described as mature, then I guess it's showing the mental disfunctions that so go along with very advanced "maturity" in actual people. Not to mention that a language that has gone through so much in this century and enjoys a not-so-stellar reputation to begin with needs anything but non-constructive drama at this juncture.
I really really wish that the language could be revitalized with more additional technical value, much like the Corinna project is striving to do (loving it and its stated principles, btw), but I've wondered countless time myself if my love for Perl would be better directed elsewhere, where it doesn't feel like watching a ship slowly sink while those aboard bicker endlessly. Climate change and watching the news grant me enough depressing thoughts as it is. It's more of an impression, a feeling, than an accurate depiction of reality, since the efforts of Curtis and Paul, among others, are concrete steps towards building something, however it does exist.
When it comes to your average tech person who loves Perl, because it just fits with their own mind well (much like myself), I remain doubtful of a growing career path there, except as a herder of legacy software much like one would find in the page of Cosmonaut Keep by Kevin MacLeod. Which, as unexciting as it may be, could also be a good way to make decent money. And my hopes for a Raku-rich future are also not that realistic at this point: frankly I don't see it pick up beyond the confines of hobby or volunteer OS projects, or of companies built by language enthusiasts.
As for your country, believe me when I tell you that here in Italy where I live there are likely to be even less opportunities than in France. Sadly, the Italian mongers groups (much like most of their counterparts elsewhere) are by now just fictional entities embellishing the pages of pm.org .
Be strong and prosper. And most importantly, keep learning :D .
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This is one of those posts that make me wonder whether it was good that my interest for Perl never became tangled with my career to the point of defining it, being a sysadmin/devop/SRE/whatever. I'been loving the language for more than 15 years, although judging from the people at Perl conferences I am still on the "younger" side of the attendees.
Attending the conferences (well, one per year actually) has been the contents of my "holidays" for several years and a place where I learnt and met several good friends, although I've grown more and more disillusioned with the steering of the language development and especially with the interactions of preminent (whatever that means) figures in the community (not all of them, mind you).
I still remember a talk in the FOSDEM Perl devroom in 2016 describing the community as mature: however, age aside, I am not that convinced that several loud members of it fit with that concept. Any volunteer-based community, especially in tech, can be extremely frustrating to deal with and be a part of, and Larry's waning presence as a respected glue-like figure has been an additional hit.
Sorry too not to have seen Liz and Wendy around as much recently, just as much as I am pained for the rift and conflict between the Perl and Raku communities, which I personally don't see as useful to either community as more than a few seem to think.
If the part of the community I've seen causing needless flames and hurt (not referring to those expressing their dissatisfaction with the current situation) with their behaviour can be described as mature, then I guess it's showing the mental disfunctions that so go along with very advanced "maturity" in actual people. Not to mention that a language that has gone through so much in this century and enjoys a not-so-stellar reputation to begin with needs anything but non-constructive drama at this juncture.
I really really wish that the language could be revitalized with more additional technical value, much like the Corinna project is striving to do (loving it and its stated principles, btw), but I've wondered countless time myself if my love for Perl would be better directed elsewhere, where it doesn't feel like watching a ship slowly sink while those aboard bicker endlessly. Climate change and watching the news grant me enough depressing thoughts as it is. It's more of an impression, a feeling, than an accurate depiction of reality, since the efforts of Curtis and Paul, among others, are concrete steps towards building something, however it does exist.
When it comes to your average tech person who loves Perl, because it just fits with their own mind well (much like myself), I remain doubtful of a growing career path there, except as a herder of legacy software much like one would find in the page of Cosmonaut Keep by Kevin MacLeod. Which, as unexciting as it may be, could also be a good way to make decent money. And my hopes for a Raku-rich future are also not that realistic at this point: frankly I don't see it pick up beyond the confines of hobby or volunteer OS projects, or of companies built by language enthusiasts.
As for your country, believe me when I tell you that here in Italy where I live there are likely to be even less opportunities than in France. Sadly, the Italian mongers groups (much like most of their counterparts elsewhere) are by now just fictional entities embellishing the pages of pm.org .
Be strong and prosper. And most importantly, keep learning :D .