Perl wasn't universal across all browsers. I think JS was viewed as akin to Perl at one point, but when people came along and started writing it the right way, everyone had their "what? Javavscript?" moment. In a way, JS's path is the inverse of Perl's; Perl was an OK language that got a bad rep for being written in poorly. JS is a flawed language that got it's good rep from people finding clever ways around its flaws to write it the right way...I think that's what is missing here..although a well-thought-out article, to be sure.