Those used to more bondage-and-discipline languages (hi, Java!) might feel revulsion at the lengths to which this has sometimes been taken, but per the quote ab

Those used to more bondage-and-discipline languages (hi, Java!) might feel revulsion at the lengths to which this has sometimes been taken, but per the quote above this is less an indictment of the language and more of its less methodical programmers. "Hi, Python!" the author meant. Let's just accept that Perl has significant readability issues -- far beyond ASCII rot and the pitfalls of TMTOWTDI -- please, which is why it is such a visceral turnoff to many programmers. Including, yes, a great many hightly "methodical" ones.