It can be very revealing how people feel about a programming language after they stop using it for new projects. Some people can't quite give it up, others fondly send flowers once a year, and some people piss on the grave.

I do think people often wind themselves up when they're breaking up with something - could be a personal relationship, a hobby, a programming language - anything that required a lot of devotion. I think we do this to justify the decision and overcome the dissonance we feel (ie., we overstate the problems we have experienced as a way of overcoming the pain of leaving), so it's especially impressive when people still look back on a programming language with affection. Perl seems to be one of those languages.

Java gets a lot of scorn from people who once used it and have moved on. I personally look back on the days of servlets, jsp, and jdbc fairly positively - I do remember sometimes looking at the screen and realizing that my fingers were going to spend a few days typing something that I'd already thought out, but it all made sense and I felt like I could do anything. I didn't start hating java until configuration hell arrived. Then, I wanted out.