NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #16/NN_1992_16.iso/spool/comp/lang/perl/4864

Internet Message Format | 1992-07-21 | 1.9 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!munnari.oz.au!metro!quark!iris.ansto.gov.au!frank
From: [e-mail] (Frank Crawford)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.perl
Subject: Re: Commercial alternatives to perl?
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 22 Jul 92 00:38:19 GMT
References: <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
Sender: [e-mail]
Organization: Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation
Lines: 28

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Christopher Davis) writes:
>
>Sorry if I confused you; I was trying to make fun of the type of MIS
>dweebs who insist on ``commercial'' support, which is often useless,
>instead of getting a feed of comp.lang.perl or whatever from UUNET,
>which is both edifying and entertaining.

After watching what has happened to a sites after I left I'm not surprised
that MIS managers want ``commercial'' support.  To take advantage of any
net support you need at least one competent and interested programmer, and
if it is more that two or three products you'll need lots more just to
weed out the chaff.

Consider how much time you would have to spend reading news if your
organisation's computing was based entirely GNU products including PERL.
Or alternatively, some critical software is written in PERL, and the
person who wrote it leaves.  Any decent MIS manager wants to know where
he can go for support when he needs it.  At least for ``commercial'' support
it is the support organisations responsibility to supply the expertise.
(There is the obvious assumption that the support organisation is compentent.)

>--
>Christopher Davis * [e-mail] * System Administrator, EFF * [phone]
>   ``The First Amendment is often inconvenient.  But that is besides the
>  point.  Inconvenience does not absolve the government of its obligation
>         to tolerate speech.'' --Justice Anthony Kennedy, in 91-155

                            Frank Crawford