Over on the GnuPG mailing list, Robert J. Hansen mentioned Perl in his "Cryptography 101" message in the context of reasons to learn group theory:
Group theory is to mathematics what Perl scripting is to system
administration: it doesn't get much respect but knowing it is an
essential, non-negotiable skill purely because of how much it glues the
whole system together.
I'd add that Perl is quite an amplifier of abilities, especially when dealing with text files including config files, JSON, and XML. This is good recognition of its utility.
