I've also noticed that immediacy is something that is very important in any language. From time to time you just need to “bang out a program quickly,” and very often that requirement will involve some kind of text-processing. This is precisely the sort of thing that Perl was designed to do.

Most of the things that we do are not computation-intensive:   they invariably require us to locate, parse through, construct, and emit text. “The tool for the job” that we're going to find ourselves picking up time and time again, is one that makes this sort of thing very easy.

Finally, I think it's significant that this language was a product of one person's need. He needed to do stuff, didn't quite have the language he wanted, and possessed the skills needed to “hack” one. (And I mean that term as an accolade.) The best tools in a workman's toolchest are affectionally known as “kinks,” and Perl is a pretty good kink. Certainly it's well-oiled and well-used.