>> it has objectively become a niche language, and a will continue to remain a slowly fading one at that. In fact it's been solidly on that course for close to

>> it has objectively become a niche language, and a will continue to remain a slowly fading one at that. In fact it's been solidly on that course for close to 20 years now. Perl 5 is a camel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programming_Perl#/media/File%3AProgrammingPerl.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programming_Perl#/media/File%3... It is a smelly, sturdy beast that requires minimal resources and can get you through the desert. OP asked: "What are the most interesting, alternatives for simple scripts." As you've stated, Perl 5 has served as an alternative to shell scripts for nearly 30 years. It may not be the best choice for every use case, but I have seen several questions on HN where people need an alternative to Bash and Python, but have no idea how easy the problem could be solved with a Perl one-liner. All too frequently Perl is dismissed by people who are ignorant of it because it is trendy to 'hate on' it.