New Perl development
Purpose-built Perl services, command-line tools, application backends and integrations without speculative layers.
Discuss a build →Perl · Canada
Digital Desert
Professional Perl development & consulting.
New systems, inherited systems and the quiet infrastructure between them—built with clear Perl and a bias toward long-term ownership.
service.pl
#!/usr/bin/env perl
use v5.26;
use warnings;
# Clear code leaves clues for the next developer.
sub handle {
my ($request) = @_;
return validate($request)
? process($request)
: reject($request);
}
1;The work
Perl is a tool, not a museum piece.
Digital Desert uses Perl where its strengths fit the work: text processing, automation, mature web systems, data-heavy backends and infrastructure that needs to remain understandable.
The goal is not to make code look newer. It is to make the system safer to change, easier to operate and easier for the next developer to understand.
Capabilities
Work worth doing carefully.
The service is shaped around the system and the constraint—not around selling a predetermined stack.
DBI & databases
Practical data access, transactions, migrations and query work with attention to failure modes and operability.
Maintain an existing system →Web & CGI systems
Modern Perl web work and careful support for classic CGI environments that still have a job to do.
CGI / Perl services →APIs & integrations
Connect existing systems without turning integration glue into a new platform of its own.
Testing & quality
Characterization tests for inherited code and focused automated tests around the behaviour most likely to break.
Read about legacy testing →Codebase assessment
Understand what exists, where risk lives and which changes actually earn their cost.
How assessments work →How we work
A path from uncertainty to maintainable software.
Evidence first. Change second. The goal is not novelty; it is confidence.
01 — Understand
Map the system, constraints, users and failure modes before proposing architecture.
02 — Protect
Capture behaviour with tests, backups, reproducible environments and small reversible changes.
03 — Change
Improve the system deliberately, document what changed and leave ownership easier than we found it.
Contact
Tell us what you need to build, maintain or rescue.
A useful first message can be short. Tell us what the system does, what is changing, and what is making the work difficult.