A decade plus ago, I was Windows-based and looking around for a
scripting language to “wrap around” a cross-assembler’s failing build using Borland ‘make’ and force it to work right. Having heard about Perl, I set up the BC-based 5.04.002 (the precursor to ActiveState), bought the Camel book and waded in, and soon had that complicated build working my way with single-point control of parameters.

That was the start. From then on, I was more likely to begin a project in Perl, even if that was prototyping for eventual C or assembly code. Whatever I thought about doing (converting text-token streams into a MIDI file? watching for intruder hosts on my network? quick-and-dirty data-scooping CGI?), there was a straightforward way to do it in Perl. I got more done because Perl was just-high-enough to relieve me of the grunt-work stuff (like malloc-fiddling) while leaving me in charge of program design and composition. I migrated to Linux; Perl was there waiting for me, and working even better for not having to fight the OS. CPAN is as much an education as a resource, with library code I can read and recast when I have to minimize the memory-cost of module pull-in, or use as-is when time is more scarce than system resources.

Perhaps that should be the sales message: the new languages are up-and-coming, but Perl5 is already *there*, a ready universal (How often do you see PHP run at the commandline? Ruby? How are they at GUI?) tool with solid foundations and ample auxiliary resources.