> A lot of Perl can be readable. But sometimes you get a backend where someone with , let's say, a "unique" view of software development writes I agree. Perha

> A lot of Perl can be readable. But sometimes you get a backend where someone with , let's say, a "unique" view of software development writes I agree. Perhaps Perl culture encouraged that kinds of development. But I've a seen number of monstrosities in other, better known languages that are "crafted" that way as well. I'm currently working with a large commercial product in C that would undoubtedly be easier for the 50-strong team of devs to work with if it was written in Perl (though they would still complain), and ironically it would probably run faster in Perl too (and be much more secure). I don't think the problem is the language really, as Perl can be written in a modular and fairly clean way too (compared with many other languages) if the developers are minded to. I think it's the culture in which those large projects were developed. Or rather, the lack of software engineering culture for long-term maintanence, and a disinclination to use frameworks and patterns that would be familiar to new developers coming in later, especially from other environments. It may be that Perl's rise and fall was a product of its timing relative to software-at-scale culture as much as anything. Despite its origins as a glue language, Perl 5 is a Lisp-like once you see past the syntax. Perhaps that's part of its problem: Lisp encourages creative and unique approaches to large projects too, and also isn't widely used any more.