Originally I used Perl when I had to...to modify existing code (databases, etc). At the time I did not understand why Perl was cool. I didn't grasp it could do nearly anything I wanted, usually without major effort.

Then I started using it for tools -- testing, build lab, and server glue. Having Perl available on 5 or 6 platforms is great stuff for portability. I started to grasp that it was unstoppable.

Now I worship it for academic reasons...self modifying code, functional programming, etc. It's my 'fun programming' language of choice. Not only could it do anything, there was an INFINITE number of ways to do it (not just more than one!).

If only we could slay that nefarious Java beast. Java has nothing on Perl. Nothing.

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