Fellow Monasterians,

I've spent nearly 4 years learning Perl, 1-1/2 years learning it correctly here at the Monastery, and that's why reading stuff like this, from pmachine.com, is so disheartening. Learning computer languages is like religion, you're always wondering if the other folks are going to be right afterall.

"Because PHP enables a level of power, speed, and flexibility that is unmatched by other languages, particularly those that rely on CGI, like Perl. It's no accident that PHP has become the de-facto scripting language on the internet, putting CGI into fast retreat. There is simply no better choice to build your web community with."

Yeah, we see doom-sayers like this every once-in-a-while, but just after losing a big web project to an ASP shop this week, I'm feeling a little insecure right now. But I'm in pretty deep, and to be honest, I still love Perl. I just don't want to be the butt of jokes at the next cocktail party. I'll keep telling myself that Perl is for *real* web programmers, and everyone else is just jealous. Long live the separation of code and HTML.

Update: Here's what I've learned from all the great replies to this meditation:

• I should take heart, Perl is not going anywhere but up.
• PHP is not a bad thing, and that I should learn the fundamentals of PHP, and some of the other languages being used in web development, including...this is hard to say...ASP.
• On the positive side, PHP is a relatively quick development tool. On the negative side, it has it's limitations, especially in light of some of the better coding practices and "stricter" conventions of Perl.
• PHP is limited to web development.
• PHP can be speedier, but mod_perl narrows the gap.
• Deduction: if PHP was all that great, there wouldn't be a Monastery, because Perlmonks are smart enough not to use something that is in "fast retreat."