in reply to Tiobe index - Perl is having a hard time
And still today the Perl community hasn't defined a clear future
I'm not sure what he means by this. My best guess is a perceived lack of a series of "5 year plans" stating what changes are planned, for which releases and when those releases are scheduled.
Perl is maintained (mostly?) by unpaid volunteers. Maybe Python, Ruby, etc - whatever is touted as being "the future that Perl won't have" - have corporate backing that Perl doesn't have. Or, maybe the people maintaining them are more like the (highly paid) "MS Project Jockies" that manage projects for big corporations. I don't know.
I think what's most damaging to Perl is commentary like what the OP quoted. Unfortunately, I don't know how to counter it.
Update: Radical idea: Drop the "5" and call the next major release "Perl 28.0". (except, Larry won't allow that)