CeBIT Open Source Project Lounge -- Perl

In a nutshell: Describe your project in one or two sentences.

Perl is a modern, dynamic, high-level programming language that lets you work more quickly and integrate your systems more effectively.

When did the project begin?

Perl was created by Larry Wall back in 1987 and has been growing and evolving ever since.

How many active members does the project have?

Several thousands: The core language is developed by a team called "Perl 5 Porters" that amounts to about 40 active members. In addition
almost 20,000 open source extensions can be found on CPAN enhancing the core language. Currently over 7,900 authors are listed on CPAN.

Why was the project created?

Originally Perl was created to make reporting tasks easier. But the language has evolved to a tool that can be used for nearly everything
you want. Today it is still often used to create reports, but it is also used for web development, system administration, test automation,
bioinformatics and almost any area in software development.

Why should a CeBIT visitor come to your booth?

We will feature several Perl based Open Source projects. Three of them: Foswiki, OTRS and Padre will have their own specific days but other projects will be shown if requested.

Visitors can have a look at these projects and they can learn how powerful Perl and the projects are. We will also discuss ways to introduce Perl or any of the Perl based solutions to the companies and organizations represented by the visitors.

Who do you make your software for?

Each extension serves to solve a different problem.

Foswiki is a wiki for flexible information management both for corporate and private use. Many plugins exists, for example to create charts or spreadsheets.

OTRS is an Open source Ticket Request System (also well known as trouble ticket system) with many features to manage customer telephone
calls and e-mails.

Padre is for software developers and a framework for desktop application development.

We will be able to show several new platforms based on the language and solution for creating dynamic web applications, setting up testing
frameworks or improving the work of system and network administrators. Both on Windows and Linux based networks.

Where do you see your biggest current challenges?

Promoting to mid and upper management.

If you could hire a full-time project developer now, what problem should he or she be ready to solve?

Creating awesome web design for our projects.

Under which license is the software currently offered?

Perl itself and most of the extensions are under Artistic or GPL license though there are extensions with various other open source licenses.

Internet address:

The central page of Perl is http://www.perl.org/
CPAN is at http://search.cpan.org/

Padre is at http://padre.perlide.org/
Foswiki is at http://foswiki.org/
OTRS is at http://www.otrs.org/