I care more about the writeability of a language, than of the readability.
- How easy is it to start a new function? How much "junk" do you have to write as a basic framework for any addition?
- Can I remember how to do it right easily, or does it pretty much require to copy/paste a boilerplate for the code before starting?
- Can I express what I want easily without having to jump through too many hoops? This mostly boils down to: what kind of stuff can I pass as parameters?
- If I change my mind ever so slightly, do I have to rewrite a lot of code just to fit the change?
- How tricky is it to get it right?
And, last but not least: how fast does it run?
Needless to say, for me, Perl scores highly on all these points.