Okay, so programming isn't about popularity contests. And people have remarked before about Perl's popularity: in particular, why some people detest it so, claim all Perl code is bad (and then blame the language for that), etc. What's new?

I'm currently kind of worried about system support for Perl. Not right now, but in the future. It seems that Perl is slowly seeping out of things. The latest masterpiece - the one that has triggered my current thoughts on this subject - comes from the nascent UserLinux list, where someone who probably isn't very well known says Python and PHP should be supported in this new distro, and a few other languages be available for stuff that needs them. Seriously - PHP, wtf? Did I miss something? (this isn't meant as a slight to the poster, nor his other beliefs ;)

I don't understand the unPerl thing. I have a good knowledge of Perl, have programmed web applications, scripts, and various other bits and pieces in it. I know exactly how wonderful the language is, and how programming other systems is like sitting on nails. I just can't see how you might not love it. But then, I'm only human.

What will it take for people to stop welching on the language? Does this even matter? Actually, there are two or three things that strike me:

• The jump between CGI and mod_perl is massive. There is no PHP-alike. There is no simple Perl for writing webby things with sessions (etc.) support in by default. Is that so hard? Loads of people get free PHP hosting with their ISP, hence lots of people play with PHP. Getting Perl hosting is slightly more difficult for CGI, lots more difficult for mod_perl. There has to be a middle way.
• Perl has manic Gnome2 support. With Glade, this could be a very cool RAD system. Not many people appear to even know it exists. This is crazy.
• CGI::Application, Template::Toolkit, Class::DBI::Pg, Apache::PAR - is this not nirvana?! I'm almost afraid to bring these modules together lest they reach critical "cool" mass and suck everything good out of the world into a black hole of amazing. See also previous comment on simple web systems.

I apologise for sounding somewhat ranty, but I just don't understand why people don't see this. It's not like there isn't enough information about good Perl code: PerlMonks, useperl, perladvent.org, etc. etc. Not so much a meditation, this is obsessing my mind currently. Do other people see a marketing problem here? Or do other languages hide similar gems? (Don't tell me PHP does, I won't believe you ;P )

You see, I don't really care about popularity. But I do care about acceptance. It should be okay to program in Perl. In fact, it should be downright cool. But it seems like that's not the case, and that Perl acceptance is getting a bit tougher these days...