convert perl site to php

[cretaceous]

I've been asked to convert an exisiting perl/cgi web site to php but I have no access to any of the scripts yet (and I'm not in contact with the developer so dont know what db it uses).

Do you think I can recycle any of the perl scripting?
I don't know perl.
I think I'm better off starting from scratch as it's a complex site and the front end is a mess, so I'm assuming the code structure is a mess as well

any comments or technical advice?

thanks!

[zbee]

If you don't know perl and you don't want to learn, then my advice would be to start from scratch. It would be nice if you could talk to the former developer to have a general chat, but trying to reuse his code without knowing how it works is not something I would advice.

[cretaceous]

hi zbee - I will get to chat with the former developer but only after (or if) I get the job - which is backwards but what do you expect ..

former developer seems not to be interested in doing the required revamp - so there's a hidden backstory that may or may not come to light.. (probably an excess of feature creep)

time will tell I guess