I have to agree with the Anonymous Monk. The functions are outstanding, the regex ability is great in v4, and it's got a pretty steady learning curve (well, as far as I've gotten with it). The reason I don't use it more is that there is very little call for it in any of my jobs. Also, you just can't beat CPAN. Don't ditch perl, because there are too many applications and sites that use it. Don't ditch PHP either, because there are too many sites that ought to be using it but aren't, and you might make a good evangelist for it. (Especially if you ever have to deal with sites that use stupid proprietary stuff that make you wanna tear your hair out every couple of weeks. But monks aren't supposed to have hair, right?)

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