CPAN and similar things like CTAN were simply phenomenal in a way that really is hard to explain today; since everything has it now. It was a magical time. If

CPAN and similar things like CTAN were simply phenomenal in a way that really is hard to explain today; since everything has it now. It was a magical time. If they hadn't done Perl 6 the way they did, it'd still be around. Perl 5 was fine but the impending doom gradually let it be overcome.