FAQ 1.16 How can I convince others to use Perl?

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1.16: How can I convince others to use Perl?

(contributed by brian d foy)

Appeal to their self interest! If Perl is new (and thus scary) to them,
find something that Perl can do to solve one of their problems. That
might mean that Perl either saves them something (time, headaches,
money) or gives them something (flexibility, power, testability).

In general, the benefit of a language is closely related to the skill of
the people using that language. If you or your team can be more faster,
better, and stronger through Perl, you'll deliver more value. Remember,
people often respond better to what they get out of it. If you run into
resistance, figure out what those people get out of the other choice and
how Perl might satisfy that requirement.

You don't have to worry about finding or paying for Perl; it's freely
available and several popular operating systems come with Perl.
Community support in places such as Perlmonks ( http://www.perlmonks.com
) and the various Perl mailing lists ( http://lists.perl.org ) means
that you can usually get quick answers to your problems.

Finally, keep in mind that Perl might not be the right tool for every
job. You're a much better advocate if your claims are reasonable and
grounded in reality. Dogmatically advocating anything tends to make
people discount your message. Be honest about possible disadvantages to
your choice of Perl since any choice has trade-offs.

You might find these links useful:

* http://perltraining.com.au/whyperl.html
* http://www.perl.org/advocacy/whyperl.html



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