I created some big apps in mod_perl back in the day, and although I don't use it at all anymore, looking back I do appreciate the sigils. Especially in the mod

I created some big apps in mod_perl back in the day, and although I don't use it at all anymore, looking back I do appreciate the sigils. Especially in the modern era of type safety and type inference, it can be hard to tell what variable "is" just by looking at its name or assignment. Whereas `%names` gives you a clue. On reflection, my biggest critique of Perl is also its biggest strength: it's just so easy to use regular expressions. It's such an important language primitive, people use regex everywhere. Unfortunately, even experts miss regex edge cases, and when regex fails, it can fail spectacularly. Then future-you (or worse, someone else) has to parse and fix that massive regex you wrote after drinking two espressos. In general, clear beats clever. Even if it means your clear, lengthier solution is actually slower.