Stefan Fischerländer’s Blog One Blog Is Not Enough

With all the hype about Ruby on Rails, the usage of PHP even in big companies like Yahoo and the rise of some Python frameworks such as Django, it sometimes seems as if Perl wouldn’t be used any longer for web development in big projects. But this impression is wrong.

Of course, Slashdot.org is well-known and often cited for its perl usage. But did you really know that del.icio.us or Forbes.com are run by Perl? Here are some of the biggest sites known to use Perl as their web technology:

• Amazon
  “Amazon uses an architecture based on Perl and HTML::Mason.”
  de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon.com (german)
• craigslist
  “Virtually all craigslist software is written in perl.”
  www.craigslist.org/about/thanks.html
• del.icio.us
  “I’m using mod_perl, HTML::Mason, and MySQL.”
  Rands in Repose: A Del.icio.us Interview
• IMDb
  “Our primary development language is Perl in the Linux/Unix environment.”
  IMDb.com: How do I join the IMDb team?
• heise online
  Heise.de is one of germany’s biggest websites; it’s powered by Perl as you can see looking at some URLs or watching the jobs offered by Heise.
  Google search: site:heise.de filetype:pl
• MovableType
  “Movable Type requires the following: Perl installed on your server, version 5.004_04 or greater. Perl version 5.6 or higher is highly recommended.” The templating system used by MovableType is HTML::Template.
  Movable Type Installation Instructions
• Slashdot
  “Slashcode itself is based on Apache, mod_perl and MySQL.”
  Slahdot FAQ
• Forbes.com
  OnLAMP.com has a screen shot with a typical Perl error: Hash (0x8f01d48) is shown where the headline should be displayed. And today Forbes.com is running an interstitial ad with the URL http://www.forbes.com/fdc/welcome_mjx.shtml. The extension “shtml” is a typical hint for Perl usage.
  OnLAMP.com: Perl in the News
• Urbia.de
  Urbia.de is one of the biggest european family communities.
  “We are looking for a perl/mod_perl developer.”
  Urbia.de: Jobs

More complete lists can be found here and here.

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