> Mentally switching into "perl" mode to work on these projects requires tons more effort then switching between our other Bash/PHP/Puppet/Python

That's surprising to me. Bash, PHP and perl seem to be closer to each other than any of them are to python. For example, the use of sigils ($var) for variable names in Bash/PHP/perl.

Bash / PHP / Perl superficially look like each other. Python code looks different.

But Perl has many strange operators and conventions that do not do as expected, or are foreign to the point of being unreadable to those who don't use Perl regularly. Additionally, Perl can be made concise (one-liner) to the point of being unreadable. It's been said that Perl is a write-only language for a reason.

Contrast with Python, which I've had six-year-olds tell me what a program does after only a few minutes' introduction to Python syntax. Though to be fair, Python's List Comprehensions are in fact just as unreadable as Perl is.

I always make a point of documenting any of the more arcane parts of perl with a reference.

Both Bash and PHP use a single sigil ($) to denote variables. But in Perl, sigils also kind of denote the type of the variable (Scalar, array, hash, subroutine, typeglob). I say kind of because it's not quite that simple.

PHP is actually closer to compiled languages like Java and C# than it is to Perl, Bash, or Python. It's mostly a static language with dynamic typing.

How sigils are used in Perl 6, and how that compares to Perl 5: https://opensource.com/article/18/9/using-sigils-perl-6

I would agree. Maybe it's more because of what people are used to than the objective "distance" between them.

Though

1 does python have the same breadth of exiting codes as CPAN ? 2 the whole tab vs spaces thing that creates a lot of hard to see syntactical errors if I wanted to program in language like that id use FORTAN IV/66