The term "scripting language" is so ill-defined as to be rather useless as a focus for discussion.

To me, the opposite of a scripting language is one in which each change to a program requires a lengthy build process, and the usual indication of a bug is a coredump or a (slow or fast) runaway memory hog. The speed of the edit/test cycle and the elimination of many classes of bugs common in C code are big plusses for scripting languages in general, and perl in particular.

There are a variety of languages that offer this "scripting" benefit; maybe some of those are not suited to building large applications, but I suspect in most cases all they need are the right methodology - certainly, after I had spent only a year or two working with perl it is unlikely I could have designed something the size of my current work project with any success, but I've experimented with enthusiasm, and now I'm perfectly comfortable tackling large projects.

Next time you are on Andrea's sofa, maybe you should try asking the guy what "scripting language" means to him, and then exploring his individual points in relation to perl.

Hugo