It's hard to imagine any role that Perl couldn't fill, with the proper adjustment. But how many different people with how many different needs can "clean Perl up" before it becomes just another programming language? If you consult Programming Perl, you'll see that Perl was consciously designed as a language that would allow you to program in ways inappropriate "for complex problems demanding complex data structures." The idea was that Perl would intentionally violate rules known to be prudent, if not necessary, for large projects, thus allowing small jobs to be handled with unprecedented ease.

Currently, talented and careful programmers can do almost anything in Perl. That's not good enough for all situations; some projects require a language like Java, so that managers can coax usable code out of any idiot who can use a keyboard. (By the way, I love Java and use it every day :-)

Now managers are salivating over all the great code in CPAN and all the talented programmers who want to use Perl.

The Problem

<cite>I love my Perl and I'll be loath to use anything else at this point.</cite>

The Antidote

<cite>The right choice of language in any given project is essential. You shouldn't feel obligated to write your projects in perl merely because you enjoy it.</cite>

Let's leave it up to the people who understand Perl the best -- the developers -- to decide whose demands can be met without turning Perl into one of those "industrial-strength languages" that "make it equally difficult to do almost everything."

Will we ever throw another script away?
Flirt gently for an evening;
Recall it on a summer's day?
Will we ever throw another script away?

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