>>"If you want to spare yourself a lot of angst in deciding which programming language to use, then I recommend this simple rule: Go ugly early. C++ will go out with you in a heartbeat."
Perl was beautiful once, but could never raise the funds to keep up with the numerous plastic surgeries required to maintain her grotesque attractiveness. Over time, the suitors who weren't afraid of change just got bored, and while there are still a few people who believe Perl's renaissance is just around the corner, the rest of us just hope she can afford a nice condo in Florida to take it easy in her old age.
What Perl has always done: allow novices to program effectively without forcing undue ceremony while enabling adepts to write great programs in the fashion they deem most appropriate.
Seems odd to me to criticize a language for allowing people who haven't learned it to get things done, but there you go.
What's Perl to do, then?