On Slashdot I found a link to the following superb rant about perl. For instance [Perl] rewards idiotic behavior in a way that no other language or tool has ever done, and on top of it, it punishes conscientiousness and quality craftsmanship -- put simply: you can commit any dirty hack in a few minutes in perl, but you can't write an elegant, maintainable program . Many a true word. The same thread included these other links What's wrong with Perl and Is Perl Difficult? that are also interesting.

I'm not saying that perl isn't useful but I do have some sympathy with the view that it has a corrupting influence. I know that every programmer thinks that they are above average, and that the code they write is fine whatever the language they use, but we all know that can't be true. Using a language that encourages good habits and rewards thoughtful approaches rather than hacking can be beneficial to even the best programmers, especially the self described best programmers.