> Every day I have to parse some new type of text file and Perl is great for that. Everyone else I work with are also in the same age range and everyone already knows Perl.
You nailed it, but this cuts both ways: as the folks who used to do everything in Perl move out, the language fades. In the last few years I see that new tasks that would be done in perl several years ago are now done in python. I like perl, but I think its best days are over.
I also learned Perl in the 90s. I loved it at the time, as it was so much easier than writing C code to parse a config or do basic text manipulation (was working at an ISP). Hearing about the "future of Perl" feels a bit like pondering the future of VHS tapes. Perl exists, and as far as I'm concerned, it is a finished product. There are countless language options that have come onto the scene since it was in its heyday, and that leaves me wondering what the goals are regarding reinventing or reimagining Perl. Who is the target audience? What is the target problem space, and why can't those issues be tackled within the modern language ecosystem? I'm not knocking the effort or initiative. I'm genuinely curious.
The problem space is string handling, particularly regex use. There is no other language (that I know of, certainly no mainstream language) where regexes are the first class citizen they are in perl. In every other language regex handling varies from a bit of a chore to downright painful, where in perl it is natural.
So when I know I'm writing something which is primarily text regex handling, I definitely reach for perl.
You nailed it, but this cuts both ways: as the folks who used to do everything in Perl move out, the language fades. In the last few years I see that new tasks that would be done in perl several years ago are now done in python. I like perl, but I think its best days are over.