I don't recall "insisting". I do, however, recall seeking, with due diligence (as would, say... a Monk?). ...for a Perl solution on a Perl forum. The reason being, explained above. There is nothing intrinsically limiting about Perl (or most languages with its degree of flexibility) that prevent it from being able to do this. So the expectation is reasonable. As it turns out, this topic continues to be an area active improvement effort in the Perl community.