If Perl isn't a language then I guess that means Java isn't a bloated, slow, and horrid memory waster. IMHO - static languages aren't nearly as usefuly a dynamic non-languages like Perl.
Academic types love to argue that they are 'RIGHT' or 'CORRECT' and everything else and one are wrong. The greatest strength of perl is that it has been expanded to do things that people really want to do. Perl6 will straiten out the few inconsitances but we've learned by trail what and HOW people want to program. Of course almost all widely used languages grew up in the wild. C, C++, Perl, etc all grew up out of the need to get something done. I think the Java people like to bitch because they are used to a basic OO principal being deep throated on them all the time and they get scared when it's not there. I mean if that pretty IDE doesn't fill in all the possible methods when I press period how am I supposed to program?
Java = Those kids that didn't color outside that lines.
Perl = Those kids that didn't color on the paper but instead the desk (the teachers desk) and were smart enough not to get caught.
