In 1998 you would definitely need closures and objects to replace Perl, since Perl has had both since 1994. I was using closures to great effect in Perl before

In 1998 you would definitely need closures and objects to replace Perl, since Perl has had both since 1994. I was using closures to great effect in Perl before I even knew what a closure was. (Are closures supposed to be a difficult or extraordinary feature?) I really find it funny when other languages do things that Perl has already been doing for years. Go2 is basically copying the way Perl5 has been advancing without breaking backward compatibility. (They don't seem to realize this.) JavaScript copied use strict. PowerShell copied $_. Everybody copied Perl extensions to regular expressions. (I can't wait for them to copy the cleaned-up, easier and more powerful Perl6 regular expression syntax.) Every feature that I've heard that Python3 changes directly correlates with a similar change that has happened in Perl5. (Only Perl5 has done them in a way to reduce breaking your old code.) Those are just a few of the the ones I know of. Perl has been a far more influential language than anyone gives it credit for. Though that is probably because they just use the feature without knowing the history of it. Eventually Perl6 will be just as influential. --- I agree that optional typing is good, I use it everyday in Perl6. (And have been for nearly ten years.)