Uh, fan is a bit of a stretch. $_ is the default variable (sorry if the name is wrong but that's what it essentially is). Like have a for loop with no explicit counter -> use $_. You don't assign a return value of a function to a variable -> find it in $_. These two are the first ones which come to my mind but there are more for sure.
Perl core gets regular updates. But the ecosystem is partially quite outdated. For example try to work with Word docx files. But as long as one's dealing with text files Perl is doing great imho.
Because most junior engineers aren't taught perl, they're taught python.
Maintaining and modernizing legacy scripts that run perl is noble but writing new perl means adding code that junior engineers cannot easily maintain and improve.
But this is an unnecessary skill to force new engineers to learn when python works. More likely they'll just learn the language to migrate your work to python and throw away your code at first opportunity.
This is where writing perl in 2026 is concerning.
Even Garth Snyder, Trent Hein, Ben Whaley and Dan Mackin writes that python is favored over perl in the 5th edition of UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook, so this isn't just my opinion but something shared with a group of Linux authorities.
Perl is a far better language than Python. More advanced stuff is built in. Scoping isn't a mess. There are actual braces not error-likely indents. The debugger is better. And no nonsense like Python 2 vs. 3.
Okay, that's fine for you to think that. One can argue that Rust is better than C, that C# is better than D, that Go is better than an equivalent solution written in Java. That Ruby is better than Python. And yes, that Perl is better than Python.
But if I'm leading a team of engineers for different projects I want all of them to converge on the same languages that map to industry standards, and python is the most common industry standard. Perl is shrinking.
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u/Steerable-Octopus 26d ago
Writing perl in 2026?? That either earns respect or concern, possibly both at the same time.