For instance, one might say "no variable sigils" in answer to my question, with the explanation that the reason for that answer is to improve readability.

Actually, coming from my C background, Perl sigils were a change for me -- sure, * means a pointer, but apart from that C doesn't have them -- but I quite liked them. Which will be a change going to Perl6.

And thanks for mentioning Ruby -- that's the third language that I need to look into (in my spare time) in order to stay up to date on what's happening with the new languages. It'll probably be easier for me if I can draw a big chart showing how you do certain things in each of the languages. For example, a pop in Python takes things off the *front* of an array, not the back, like Perl. Not what I expected.