>> Hardly anyone knows X. Let's replace it with something nobody knows By that logic no one should make anything new to replace the incumbent. In case of Perl

>> Hardly anyone knows X. Let's replace it with something nobody knows By that logic no one should make anything new to replace the incumbent. In case of Perl, PHP came and it replaced Perl as mainstream web development language. In sysadmin stuff where Perl used to be mainstream, now significant chunk is taken away by Python. These days JavaScript appeals to younger people more. Times change and with it the tools people use also change. There is no guarantee that any new project will succeed but you won't know unless you try.