Personally, I have decided that I will work on a job I don’t enjoy only if there is no other way to keep myself fed.

I would do Java before starving; it is only boring. But I'd start to look around, too.

And if Java has such simple and regular syntax that it doesn’t get confused, what does that really mean? The core language does so little that you need a positively byzantine standard library.

I always thought that the reason Perl was losing a bit of spotlight was that it is a generalist tool. If something new needs to be done (that doesn't need compiled C speed), then Perl is the easiest language to use. It is the superset of Sh, C, Awk, etc, etc.

After a while, more specialised tools appears which are written to do just that one thing. Then those tools take over, since it is less baggage and you can have any fool learn it quite easily.

Update: After thinking on the last two paragraphs, I think at least half of Perl's speed and nimbleness for new things is CPAN, of course. It makes it much speedier to change the std language libs for everyone when a new type of application comes along. (-: In sharp contrast to the "socialist" 5-year release plans. :-)

I think Perl will probably be used first when new things happen and it can be applied. Simple and specialised tools will show up and compete with Perl for attention if the new application is used by many programmers (Internet) -- otherwise not (Biotech).