I hate posts I have to read twice, so I'll just comment on the very few things I picked up the first time over.
- It doesn't matter what the language stands for. What does "Python" or "Ruby" stand for? Why aren't they really a python and a ruby respectively instead of programming languages?!? Read up on the history of naming Perl if you actually care for some strange reason.
- Perl does extract and report. Take your database driven app. It extracts data from a database and reports it in HTML form. This can be applied to everything.
- Who cares about speed? Optimize once you need it, not before. If Perl's too slow, use something else. There is no debate here.
- If you can efficiently do almost everything you want to do in Perl you should acquire higher goals. Perl isn't anywhere near the perfect language for everything, nor will it ever be. <insert type="drivel" category="useBestToolForJob" />
yeah, that's all.