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I am looking at trying to learn templated web development in Perl.

This is both for personal use, as well as hopefully to gain another marketable skill.

I have some idea of what possible Perl templated development frameworks are there (on the level of googling "Perl template web development" :)

However, an ex-coworker once mentioned that she really liked Embperl. That was the only option of which I have recommendation for, but based on SO search, it doesn't appear like it is terribly popular.

So, my question is, when trying to research and evaluate which framework to try and learn, should I include Embperl?

It seems to be hosted by Apache website so probably is not low quality, and as I said I have a personal recommendation for it. But on the surface it appears to be a lot less popular.

The criteria for me would be:

  • Power/flexibility/overall quality.

  • Active development/support. E.g. is it a "dead" framework?

Just to clarify, I'm not necessarily asking for comparison with other frameworks, rather, whether I should invest my time/effort into including Embperl into such comparison when I make one (and what data points I should consider that would be relevant to the decision).

DVK
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1 Answers1

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Short answer: "Very sadly, No (on non-technological grounds)".

Long answer:

  • On one hand, Embperl is VERY powerful. If you look at it from purely technological standpoint, it's VERY much worth it. I have not used TT, but I have seen references to Embperl being both faster AND more powerful than TT.

  • However, as you noted, Embperl is not currently as popular as the alternatives (TT, Mason etc...). It is used by less people professionally, and by less organizations. Part of it might be because it is not currently possible to use it with Catalyst using mature code, a couple of obviously new raw modules on CPAN nonwithstanding).

    So you will have less demand employment wise; and less support from your peers (including on SO - yours was like the second Embperl question ever that I recall). Based on this, I would not recommend considering Embperl unless you have a tangible job opportunity involving that, or employment considerations of choosing Embperl or other system are very small for you.

  • In addition, Embperl is only supported/developed by 1 person, to the best of my knowledge (Gerard Richter). If one of your goals is long-term employment considerations, I am not sure the level of risk associated with the product depending on 1 developer is a good idea long term.

HOWEVER, please be aware that, like Mark Twain's, the report of Embperl's death was greatly exaggerated. To be specific, it previously appeared that the development of Embperl stopped completely with development version 2.2.1 in 2006 if you look at the main Apache Embperl site (see now what I meant above about the risk of sole developer?).

BUT!!! A bit of digging discovered that it's ALIVE! In 2010, Gerald announced the release of Embperl 2.4. This includes support for Perl 5.12, as well as some work (unreleased alpha stage) for using Embperl with Catalyst

BTW, I have been using Embperl professionally for many years, and am very happy with it as a framework. Thus the "sadly" qualifier.

UPDATE: Apparently, there's been some effort to get Embperl to play nicely with Catalyst. If/when that happens and is stable, I would then change my answer to "look at Embperl as an option", although the employment considerations still stand.

DVK
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  • @ysth - correct. I figured it would be way too obvious to bother expanding given the context :) – DVK Jan 04 '11 at 06:12
  • I'm not convinced your non-technical reasons are sufficient grounds to disqualify consideration once and for all. – Ether Jan 04 '11 at 21:23
  • @Ether - Please offer a dissenting opinion as an answer, then. As I said, I'm VERY happy with Embperl myself so i had to force myself into voicing this conclusion. I'd be heckova happy to be proven wrong – DVK Jan 04 '11 at 23:13
  • I don't have enough recent experience with TT and Embperl to have any strong feelings either way, but it seems like you start off saying "no" and then provide a few points which are not very negative at all, so IMHO I'd just change the "no" to "maybe" or "it depends". :) – Ether Jan 05 '11 at 17:51