For microperl for sure, and the other issue is memory fragmentation. But right now I think that Perl 5 is a great alternative at the intermediate embedded level and that's where I'm focusing right now: for example, the Linux side of an Arduino Yłn or on a Raspberry PI. I think that is not too much work to create some light weight packages that are targeted to these architectures and to help maintain some of the existing Perl distributions on those platforms (e.g. the perlbase packages on OpenWRT).

I think that to revive attention on Perl and gain some traction, is to provide simple solutions for hacking in the Maker's ecosystems. We found for example, that if you want to hack a simple microservice on OpenWRT you'd have to spend a lot of time studying Luci and learning LUA, or use Node.js perhaps. But both these approaches require a steep learning curve, are resource hungry, and mostly overkill for the Maker's mentality. People on these platforms want simple and light weight stuff with very few dependencies. I think that Perl 5 can fill this gap so this single file HTTP server was our first step in this direction. I think we may publish on the CPAN and perlbase packages on OpenWRT. We will also spend some time porting Mojolicious to OpenWRT for those Makers that outgrow our one script server.

Think about why Arduino is so popular? It's because it's easy, fun and simple to work with and experience in minutes. These are the same attributes that made Perl popular on the Web to begin with.

But in the Arduino Yłn for example, all your are left with on the Linux side is Python and LUA. I think that we have a good chance of reviving interest in Perl for the Yłn crowd and the larger OpenWRT ecosystem first, and then take it from there into more and more Maker spaces.