From your position I think that your sentiment is correct. A nicely written article. Artisan programmers will surely however only ever make a proportion of the programming work.

I have spent quite a lot of time looking at Python. When I look at Python code I miss Perl's syntax. However I do appreciate the requirements to conformity. The usual problem with programming to 'your own style' is that a lot of the time it is extremely dificult for others to understand 'the code'. That is great if we want to explore the world of possibilities. It does however make Perl a hard sell. This is not just because of academia. It really comes down to the requirements of industry.

When it comes to Raku. I've seen a talk at a Perl conference on this language. Having studied Python I can safely say that Raku looks like a beautiful language. I do believe that Raku and Perl 7 will at some point combine. The reasons. Well. Cloud based computing will necessitate object orientation of Python fame. Raku will offer that. Multicore processors will demand functional programming of the quality of Haskell. Raku will offer that.

I do think that if Perl 5 or 7 works well for you, then carry on using it. Unless you want to do something like AI then keep going with Perl. The reason: People overuse Object Orientation (OO) in my opinion. In such case, your point on migrating from Procedural to OO then becomes valid. Remember this. For Python, if you know and understand OO, then OO is fine. People get tied up in knots with OO because they don't fully understand the theory.

One of the reasons I originally went with Perl was because I didn't think that Java had the right syntax for OO. Python has gone a long way towards fixing that in my view. I think that Raku will learn from Python.

Given all of that I predict that Perl will comeback at some point and take Python's crown.

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