Re:Why Perl?
by quintushoratius on Friday April 21, 2023 @08:54AM
(#35652989)
> Perl 5 is an old language. Period.
That's an odd way of looking at it. C is an old language. C++ is an old language. Java is an old language. Nobody is arguing against them because they're "old".
Moreover, just because something is old doesn't mean you throw it away. How many newer languages have come, and gone, just in the time since Perl hit its peak?
Perl 5 had a certain niche. That niche has been filled by other languages (mostly backend JS these days).
C lives off its niche as being the lingua franca for programming low level interfaces. Java lives in its corporate niche and C++ mostly in game programming and large desktop applications.
Perl 5 has become an orphan. Itβs a programming language nobody needs any more and, hence, shares the fate of many other obsolete languages that may be cool but are unpopular.
I don't think it has anything to do with it. Perl 5 is an old language. Period. And Javascript came to inherit Perl's position as a "web glue language". These days JavaScript is an okayish language to use in this case.
Raku fka "Perl 6" is out and alive: https://www.raku.org/
It turned out to be a very powerful programming language but lacks the large niches Perl 5 (the web) or Python (machine learning) catered to.