Re: Perl - Fortune 500 quality?

[mike808@users.sourceforge.net]

BTW, Perl celebrated it's 15th birthday this past Wednesday (12/18).
Happy Birthday, Perl!

William Underwood wrote:
> So, what's up with his "Not a fortune 500" comment?  I'd think there are
> plenty of fortune 500 companies that have perl scripts running around.

Steven Pritchard replied:
> I think your boss is confused.  It must be all that Java.

I concur. I'd go further and say that *EVERY SINGLE ONE* of the Fortune 100
uses Perl. And I'd go even further to say that half of them use Perl in
some mission-critical capacity.

ActiveState says this about Perl (they are the dominant Perl distribution 
for Windows platform):

From http://www.activestate.com/Corporate/About_ActiveState/Fast_Facts.html

> Customers:
> Over two million users worldwide, including over 70% of the Fortune 500.

I'd say that means over 70% of the Fortune500 use Perl. QED.

There is a reason Perl is called the "Duct Tape of the Internet".

Ask your boss why can't Java implement closures, dynamic object typing,
method overloading and multiple method dispatch, all things Perl has had
since 1995 in Perl5?

Check out Damien Conway's Object Oriented Perl book for proof.

And if he's looking for business case reasons you need to use Perl:

Check out Rob Pike's The Practice of Programming for some language choice
and the business impacts of that choice.

Randal Schwartz  says:
> For the most part, you'll code about 3 lines of Perl for every 10 lines of C, 
> C++ or Java. And studies have shown that debugging and maintenance cost is 
> proportional to lines of code.
> 
> The cost of programmers being what it is, Perl is cheaper to use overall. 

And dws writes at http://perlmonks.thepen.com/66959.html
> There is a real and important distinction between "standardizing on" 
>  and "using to good effect." I know plenty of companies, including several 
> in the Fortune 500, who are quite happy to officialy "standardize on" one 
> set of things (like CASE tools and methodologies, and in some cases 
> Microsoft), then quietly look the other way when people actually need to 
> get something mission critical done. 
> And that includes using Perl, Apache, Linux/FreeBSD, Samba, gcc, etc. 
> Quietly, in the back room. They're more up-front about using Java. I see 
> much more Java development in Fortune 1000 shops than I see C/C++ 
> development. Three years ago, it was the other way around (at least for 
> what I was seeing.)

For more uses of Perl in some very high (and some not so high) profile
web sites (in the form of mod_perl, perhaps Perl's single most successful
application).

http://perl.apache.org/outstanding/success_stories/index.html  

Mike808/

FYI from the 4/15/02 Fortune 500:
1 Wal-Mart Stores
2 Exxon Mobil
3 General Motors
4 Ford Motor
5 Enron
6 General Electric
7 Citigroup
8 ChevronTexaco
9 Intl. Business Machines
10 Philip Morris
11 Verizon Communications
12 American Intl. Group
13 American Electric Power
14 Duke Energy
15 AT&T
16 Boeing
17 El Paso
18 Home Depot
19 Bank of America Corp.
20 Fannie Mae
21 J.P. Morgan Chase
22 Kroger
23 Cardinal Health
24 Merck
25 State Farm Insurance
26 Reliant Energy
27 SBC Communications
28 Hewlett-Packard
29 Morgan Stanley
30 Dynegy
31 McKesson
32 Sears Roebuck
33 Aquila
34 Target
35 Procter & Gamble
36 Merrill Lynch
37 AOL Time Warner
38 Albertson's
39 Berkshire Hathaway
40 Kmart
41 Freddie Mac
42 WorldCom
43 Marathon Oil
44 Costco Wholesale
45 Safeway
46 Compaq Computer
47 Johnson & Johnson
48 Conoco
49 Pfizer
50 J.C. Penney
51 MetLife
52 Mirant
53 Dell Computer
54 Goldman Sachs Group
55 United Parcel Service
56 Motorola
57 Allstate
58 TXU
59 United Technologies
60 Dow Chemical
61 ConAgra
62 Prudential Financial
63 PepsiCo
64 Wells Fargo
65 Intel
66 International Paper
67 Delphi
68 Sprint
69 New York Life Insurance
70 DuPont de Nemours (E.I.)
71 Georgia-Pacific
72 Microsoft
73 Walt Disney
74 Aetna
75 Ingram Micro
76 Lucent Technologies
77 Lockheed Martin
78 Walgreen
79 Bank One Corp.
80 TIAA-CREF
81 Phillips Petroleum
82 BellSouth
83 Honeywell Intl.
84 UnitedHealth Group
85 Viacom
86 Supervalu
87 PG&E Corp.
88 Alcoa
89 American Express
90 Wachovia Corp.
91 Lehman Brothers Hldgs.
92 Cisco Systems
93 CVS
94 Lowe's
95 Sysco
96 Bristol-Myers Squibb
97 Electronic Data Systems
98 Caterpillar
99 Coca-Cola
100 Archer Daniels Midland
101 AutoNation
102 Qwest Communications
103 FedEx
104 Mass. Mutual Life Ins.
105 Pharmacia
106 FleetBoston
107 Cigna
108 AMR
109 Loews
110 Solectron
111 Johnson Controls
112 Sun Microsystems
113 HCA
114 Visteon
115 Sara Lee
116 Washington Mutual
117 Tech Data
118 Federated Dept. Stores
119 Raytheon
120 Xerox
121 U.S. Bancorp
122 TRW
123 Abbott Laboratories
124 Northwestern Mutual
125 UAL
126 Minnesota Mining & Mfg.
127 AmerisourceBergen
128 Coca-Cola Enterprises
129 Fleming
130 Emerson Electric
131 Best Buy
132 Rite Aid
133 Publix Super Markets
134 Hartford Fin. Services
135 Exelon
136 Nationwide
137 Xcel Energy
138 Valero Energy
139 McDonald's
140 Weyerhaeuser
141 Kimberly-Clark
142 Liberty Mutual Group
143 May Dept. Stores
144 Goodyear Tire & Rubber
145 Wyeth
146 Occidental Petroleum
147 Household International
148 Delta Air Lines
149 Gap
150 Lear
151 Northrop Grumman
152 Amerada Hess
153 Halliburton
154 Deere
155 Eastman Kodak
156 CMS Energy
157 Circuit City Stores
158 Cinergy
159 Anheuser-Busch
160 Winn-Dixie Stores
161 Avnet
162 WellPoint Health Netwks.
163 Sunoco
164 Textron
165 Edison International
166 General Dynamics
167 Tenet Healthcare
168 Union Pacific
169 PacifiCare Health Sys.
170 Farmland Industries
171 Eli Lilly
172 Waste Management
173 Office Depot
174 Williams
175 Toys `R` Us
176 Oracle
177 Tyson Foods
178 Staples
179 TJX
180 Dominion Resources
181 Computer Sciences
182 Manpower
183 Dana
184 Anthem
185 Allegheny Energy
186 Whirlpool
187 Humana
188 Southern
189 Marriott International
190 MBNA
191 Arrow Electronics
192 Health Net
193 Marsh & McLennan
194 NWA
195 Public Svc. Enter. Group
196 Schering-Plough
197 Illinois Tool Works
198 Comcast
199 Consolidated Edison
200 Entergy
201 AES
202 AFLAC
203 NiSource
204 Nike
205 UnumProvident
206 H.J. Heinz
207 Colgate-Palmolive
208 Limited
209 John Hancock Finan. Svcs.
210 Express Scripts
211 Burlington No. Santa Fe
212 Agilent Technologies
213 National City Corp.
214 Fluor
215 USAA
216 Continental Airlines
217 Cendant
218 St. Paul Cos.
219 Guardian Life of America
220 Kellogg
221 Principal Financial
222 SCI Systems
223 Bear Stearns
224 R.J. Reynolds Tobacco
225 Ashland
226 FPL Group
227 Progress Energy
228 Pepsi Bottling
229 SunTrust Banks
230 Dillard's
231 Smurfit-Stone Container
232 Anadarko Petroleum
233 Masco
234 US Airways Group
235 Genuine Parts
236 Texas Instruments
237 PPG Industries
238 CSX
239 Conseco
240 Gillette
241 Sempra Energy
242 FirstEnergy
243 Clear Channel Commun.
244 Cenex Harvest States
245 DTE Energy
246 Aramark
247 Aon
248 Baxter International
249 Chubb
250 Alltel
251 Calpine
252 Nextel Communications
253 Kohl's
254 Progressive
255 American Standard
256 Boise Cascade
257 KeyCorp
258 Applied Materials
259 Eaton
260 Capital One Financial
261 Bank of New York Co.
262 Crown Cork & Seal
263 EMC
264 General Mills
265 AdvancePCS
266 Automatic Data Proc.
267 Safeco
267 Tricon Global Restrnts.
269 PNC Financial Svcs. Group
270 Newell Rubbermaid
271 KeySpan
272 Omnicom Group
273 Northeast Utilities
274 Plains All Amer. Pipeline
275 ArvinMeritor
276 ONEOK
277 Avaya
278 Unocal
279 Interpublic Group
280 Navistar International
281 Centex
282 Campbell Soup
283 Fifth Third Bancorp
284 First Data
285 Premcor
286 Lincoln National
287 Gannett
288 Sonic Automotive
289 Corning
290 Dean Foods
291 BB&T Corp.
292 United Auto Group
293 Norfolk Southern
294 Science Applications Intl.
295 Paccar
296 Gateway
297 Saks
298 Lennar
299 Avista
300 Unisys
301 Owens-Illinois
302 Avon Products
303 Parker Hannifin
304 NCR
305 Smithfield Foods
306 Rohm & Haas
307 Conectiv
308 ServiceMaster
309 PPL
310 Air Products & Chem.
311 Cummins
312 Idacorp
313 State St. Corp.
314 Nordstrom
315 Caremark Rx
316 Allied Waste Industries
317 Southwest Airlines
318 Medtronic
319 Providian Financial
320 VF
321 Federal-Mogul
322 Eastman Chemical
323 Baker Hughes
324 Pulte Homes
325 Apple Computer
326 Dollar General
327 Fortune Brands
328 R.R. Donnelley & Sons
329 USA Networks
330 Charles Schwab
331 BJ's Wholesale Club
332 Ikon Office Solutions
333 Tribune
334 TransMontaigne
335 Tesoro Petroleum
336 Praxair
337 American Family Ins. Grp.
338 Engelhard
339 Sherwin-Williams
340 Goodrich
341 Ryder System
342 CNF
343 Barnes & Noble
344 Graybar Electric
345 Countrywide Credit
346 AutoZone
347 Mattel
348 RadioShack
349 Owens Corning
350 W.W. Grainger
351 Adams Resources & Engy.
352 Pitney Bowes
353 Dole Food
354 ITT Industries
355 KB Home
356 McGraw-Hill
357 OfficeMax
358 Park Place Entertainment
359 Sierra Pacific Resources
360 Estee Lauder
361 Maytag
362 Hershey Foods
363 Pinnacle West Capital
364 Dover
365 Micron Technology
366 Ameren
367 Murphy Oil
368 D.R. Horton
369 Willamette Industries
370 Quantum
371 Golden West Financial
372 Oxford Health Plans
373 Cablevision Systems
374 HEALTHSOUTH
375 Foot Locker
376 Administaff
377 Black & Decker
378 Jabil Circuit
379 Mutual of Omaha Ins.
380 Rockwell Automation
381 Golden State Bancorp
382 Longs Drug Stores
383 Levi Strauss
384 Kelly Services
385 NorthWestern
386 Cooper Industries
387 Computer Assoc. Intl.
388 Comerica
389 Temple-Inland
390 Lexmark International
391 Nucor
392 Hormel Foods
393 SPX
394 Leggett & Platt
395 Nash Finch
396 Jones Apparel Group
397 Cox Communications
398 Mellon Financial Corp.
399 Sanmina-SCI
400 Regions Financial
401 Darden Restaurants
402 Pathmark Stores
403 Amgen
404 MGM Mirage
405 Pittston
406 Phelps Dodge
407 Echostar Communications
408 Group 1 Automotive
409 AK Steel Holding
410 Autoliv
411 MeadWestvaco
412 Encompass Services
413 Starwood Hotels & Rsrts.
414 CDW Computer Centers
415 Jacobs Engineering Grp.
416 LTV
417 Charter Communications
418 American Financial Grp.
419 York International
420 Wisconsin Energy
421 Constellation Energy
422 United Stationers
423 Clorox
424 Advanced Micro Devices
425 Steelcase
426 Fidelity Natl. Financial
427 Peter Kiewit Sons'
428 FMC
429 Owens & Minor
430 Avery Dennison
431 Maxtor
432 Danaher
433 Energy East
434 NTL
435 Becton Dickinson
436 Host Marriott
437 First American Corp.
438 SouthTrust Corp.
439 Pacific LifeCorp
440 Harrah's Entertainment
441 Ball
442 Brunswick
443 Family Dollar Stores
444 Wesco International
445 Ames Dept. Stores
446 Kerr-McGee
447 Quest Diagnostics
448 Smith International
449 Spartan Stores
450 USA Education
451 Interstate Bakeries
452 Roundy's
453 SCANA
454 Liz Claiborne
455 Mohawk Industries
456 Adelphia Communications
457 Big Lots
458 Core-Mark International
459 Emcor Group
460 Foster Wheeler
461 Borders Group
462 Shopko Stores
463 AmSouth Bancorp.
464 Puget Energy
465 Tenneco Automotive
466 Harley-Davidson
467 Western Gas Resources
468 Bethlehem Steel
469 Jefferson-Pilot
470 Burlington Resources
471 Allmerica Financial
472 USG
473 Yellow
474 Northern Trust Corp.
475 Aid Assn. for Lutherans
476 Performance Food Group
477 JDS Uniphase
478 Lyondell Chemical
479 Airborne
480 Comdisco
481 NSTAR
482 OGE Energy
483 Staff Leasing
484 Enterprise Products
485 PepsiAmericas
486 Cooper Tire & Rubber
487 Coventry Health Care
488 Anixter International
489 Union Planters Corp.
490 Armstrong Holdings
491 Equity Office Properties
492 Amazon.Com
493 Lennox International
494 American Axle & Mfg.
495 C.H. Robinson Worldwide
496 Kindred Healthcare
497 Devon Energy
498 Sealed Air
499 Hilton Hotels
500 New York Times


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