Why are so many contenders to the throne of Perl nothing but a cheap copy of Perl 4?

PHP, Python, Ruby, Javascript all start by copying Perl's worst practices, according to computer scientists, to become immensely popular, with no strict and globals everywhere.

But the fun never lasts because they eventually succumb to aspersions of computer scientists to add all sorts of cruft to enforce austerities that satisfy obsessively compartmentalized minds.

I think the reason is this: Languages like Perl force computers to think like people, rather than forcing people to think like computers.

Don't get me wrong, we need the scientists to build and maintain the playgound so we can play, but we also need them to get the heck out of our way, and to stay away!

Hard Fork Perl with a trendy cool name and make sure the batteries are included by throwing in a kitchen sink of about 1000 of the most awesome CPAN modules in a way that will do everything and run everywhere and you may have (another) winner.

Perl 6, seriously, this is sad: 


$input.close or die $!;
close($output);

In reply to Why is Perl 4 so popular? by Anonymous Monk

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