So, you are planning on staying the 3000, while also investigating
alternatives. One option is to explore some of the alternatives that are
also available on the 3000, and off of it. I am of the opinion that the
ability to migrate lowers the risk of being on a platform. And this, in and
of itself, can lower the visibility on someone's radar. This also can allow
one to migrate those pieces that are not working out for you on your 3000,
for whatever the reason, while leaving alone what works well.

python IS available on the 3000, right? The peer who got me working with
perl later recanted, and suggested that we rewrite our existing work in
python. While I'm a perl newbie, and have only looked briefly at some python
scripts and two books, one thing stands out. perl seems very much like UNIX
shell scripts and C code, being somewhere between the two. So, someone
already familiar with and comfortable with that milieu is probably going to
find perl similarly comfortable. I am going in the other direction, grasping
Linux concepts better from working with them in perl.

I don't really know enough about python to say what it is like, except that
it struck me as noticeably more English-like than much of the perl I have
seen, but still with its share of cryptic minutia. I suppose obtuseness can
be achieved in most any language. One author * claimed * that python
enforced OO, while claiming that perl fully supports OO, but does not
enforce it.

If you are going to learn something knew, what would you rather learn and
support? Pick your rut carefully; you may be in it for a long time.

Greg Stigers
http://www.cgiusa.com

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