Jello wrote:
I built our prototype using Perl/CGI and JS, without any decent toolset. It was terrible.

Sweet jebus, i can imagine it was.

Then I found Catalyst, DBIx::Class and Firebug. Catalyst is not unlike Rails. Catalyst is wonderful: I get an MVC framework, and the CPAN. I don't have to worry about authenticaiton, sessions, etc and I can still pluging any one of a million perl packages. This allows me to focus on what is novel about our application. DBIx::Class writes my joins for me, although we do enough complicated SQL I end up sending alot of raw SQL through it. And Firebug lets me look at XMLHttpRequests and helps me debug JS.

I haven't any experience with Catalyst, but it sounds nice, particularly if you're already a Perl ninja. FireBug, OTOH, i love and use frequently, even with the C#/.NET backed app I'm partially responsible for at work.

RE: Better Web Application Framework - Google Video