Absolutely fascinating post!!! Not least because as part of my move away from C++ I have determined to be at least proficient in all the popular interpreted languages such as perl (obviously), python and ruby. The problem is after becoming at least comfortable in perl, whenever I try to give python a try I end up asking myself 'why bother?'. I run smack in to that wall of utterly rigid programming paradigm you mention and bounce clean off.

Not to deride python too much of course. In some ways that kind of absolute pattern is good and helpful - and in the right mood I would even support it. I only wish C++ was a harshly defined as it would solve a lot of problems - accessor/mutator functions inside the same class hierarchy OR direct access to protected inherited data members and so on. However... perl is just so... seductive. I really think I can do absolutely ANYTHING I could ever want to do at the command line in perl, faster, clearer and enjoy doing it more too dammit!

Currently I do draw the line at the console though. I do not think I would try a GUI app in perl and default back there to C++. But even that may come in time.