I believe there are several reasons for this misperception:

• the first is that Perl can be naturally obfuscated ($@#*&{}[]()!~). It leads to people not taking the time to read code.
• the second is, that Perl was, at first, simply a scripting language, and oftentimes it still is. Not everyone who uses Perl is a developer, and even they are not always developing when using it. Thus the code tends to be less rigorously maintained.
• the third is (as was rightly mentioned) diversity (or TMTOWTDI). Perl as a language, and the community it has grown around it encourage this, leading Perl code to be as diverse as any language I have seen.

All of these have been described as bringing about the misconception, and yet, each of them also gives Perl its power. All we can do is try our best to write readably, and, if we are lucky, convey that habit to others.

Oh, and I hope your leg feels better :) !

--- New Test Leper

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