I have a couple of decades of Perl, and used it for everything from automating warehouses to building the original BBC iPlayer to big data ETL. I’ve also spent

I have a couple of decades of Perl, and used it for everything from automating warehouses to building the original BBC iPlayer to big data ETL. I’ve also spent the last five weeks writing Python exclusively for a job, and the two years before _that_ doing TypeScript on the backend. CPAN is better than its equivalents. The consistent documentation style and location, focus on tests, and so on is excellent. Miss CPAN. Python is a fine language. Its type system feels like a toy after using TypeScript, but last time I used Perl in anger there was nothing. The scoping is weird, and I think makes readability worse, but you get used to it. TypeScript is awesome, but setting up the compile step for a new project so it works with testing and so on, weird edge cases about which module system you’re using, these are irritating. I love Perl, and I think in Perl, but given its ever-decreasing mindshare, I’m not sure what major new projects I’d start in it. At both the TS and Python role I’ve written Perl that acts as a superior bash, and it’s been excellent for this, long may it continue. The big issue is that I’m reluctant to share my Perl with the rest of the team because I’m the only one who knows it