Perl in Web Development [closed]

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I have heard a lot about using Perl in web development for CGI scripts but are they still widely used today? From a development (Not an Administrative) point of view, is it worth learning? What would be an example of something that is better handled in Perl than PHP?

Thanks

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My answer is that CGI is obsolete and you shouldn’t learn web programming in Perl in combination with CGI. There’s a very nice web framework called Mojolicious, that could be a fun way to get started with web programming in Perl. Once you want to deploy your application to a server, you can use PSGI to interface between the server and your app. Dotcloud seems to be a promising, hassle-free host for such apps.

As for the PHP vs. Perl question, that’s hard to answer without causing a flamewar. For me, Perl is much more mature and better thought-out ecosystem. Opinions may vary.

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Don't bother with CGI in any language (Perl, C, etc) but look at modern web frameworks. And in this area Perl is fully loaded:

• Dancer
• Catalyst
• Mojolicious
• WebNano

And since they all use PSGI you can deploy them on any server such as FastCGI, Apache/mod_perl, nginx and as legacy CGI scripts. There are also Perl specific application servers like Starman, Corona, Tatsumaki, etc.

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While making subjective predicates here, is not the best idea, I can only argue with some job offer sites (as you can see, than perl still lead):

• indeed
• simplyhired

At the other side, "CGI" is archaic. Now perl developers use Plack (PSGI) and similar techniques.

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I'd venture to say that nothing new is done with Perl/CGI scripts today, but there probably are a good number of legacy sites that are still implemented with Perl/CGI.

From a development point of view, I'd say it's worth spending a day or two learning CGI with Perl (provided you already know Perl). I say this because CGI (Common Gateway Interface) with Perl will expose you to the underpinnings of the web (namely HTTP POST, GET, Request Variables, Server Environment Variables). With Perl/CGI, you get to manipulate these things directly, and that hands-on ability is helpful when dealing with any of today's modern frameworks.