With regard to my bloat argument, you have purposefully exaggerated your defense by mentioning operators that provide unique benefits that are impractical to not use. += is impractical to not use. Statement modifiers are impractical to not use. Map in void context is not nearly as necessary of a construct.

With regard to the tr/a/a/ that I mentioned, it isn't funny that I brought this up, nor is it a coincidence. I am admitting that the language has a precident for providing behaviour in un-obvious or circular implementation, that is at some point optimized for general use. Do I consider it bloat? I sure do. I brought it up, after all.

As for your last attempt to insult me, I suggest you re-think your motivations. I rarely ever use Java. My day-to-day programming at work is almost 100% Perl, and has been for several years.

You may think Perl is perfect. I don't. I am forced to admit that Perl is practical, and so I use it. Note the difference. Not all the world is Abigail, or Perl. Didn't you just say, in this very thread, "Think for yourself"? I am thinking for myself, and you are criticizing me for it. I suppose "there is more than one way to do it" really means "there is Abigail's range of doing it" and anybody who uses less as a means of improving the quality of the code, is guilty of limited thought. Sheesh.