Why do I learn a language now? Because I can, and it's become fun, like learning a new musical instrument or human language. You discover new ways of doing the same old thing.

Perl started me on that kick, but I didn't learn Perl for that reason. I was working on a Web project, trying to select the best tool for the job. I went quite a long ways with PHP, but started bumping my head into barriers of the language before I felt like I had finished saying what I had to say. You couldn't do this, you could do that only if you followed this torturous syntax. Bleagh. So I started learning Perl because it was in wider use at the time and seemed capable of allowing me to say what I needed to.

Did that make any sense? Basically, I learned Perl because it got the job done with the least headache.

Oh, and a little disclaimer: PHP is a dandy language, and has grown a lot since the murky days of early 1998. Don't let my faded memories steer you away from it :-)

I just realized that I was using the same sig for nearly three years.