Perl has great potential. The reason Rails and other newer languages are getting attention is solely because they're new. Rails is easier to start programming in by people who'll never understand the difference between a constant and a variable in their life. Other languages are invisible to them.

Does that mean Rails is bad? No! Every language has its merits and demerits. It's easier for a programming to learn them all than fight for a single language.

Perl has its own strong points, just like any other language.

"No-one is building anything new with it today."

Generalizations. So easy to make, and so imprecise nevertheless.