Re: Y Store now C++

[Geoffrey Knauth <address@hidden>]

On Tuesday, February 25, 2003, at 09:39 PM, John Morrison wrote:
> I feel like there should be a corollary to the network effects
> law, reserved for when the masses embark upon a truly self-destructive
> course, like switching to Perl

Last spring I ran into a company with revenues in the tens of millions 
of dollars whose ENTIRE infrastructure was built in Perl.  I was 
amazed.  I asked Why? and their VP Engineering said it was their Number 
One FAQ.  (I think the answer is basically they just wanted to do it 
that way.)  Their market is medical financial services for physician 
practices, standardizing medical office information systems and getting 
payments from HMOs faster.  They said while their solution could be 
considered "interesting," they pointed out that 10,000 smart physicians 
across the U.S. who were also programmers and/or entrepreneurs had 
managed to produce 10,000 incompatible proprietary systems they were 
all trying to sell each other.

The company was in advanced start-up mode (employees in the dozens), 
"expecting profitability by the end of the year."  Well, the end of the 
year has passed; I should check if that happened.

Geoffrey