I think an accent comes from moving from a less feature-rich language to a more feature-rich language, and not using the new features.

While Perl is a nice wide language it still has it's restrictions, corners and peculiar mind set. I know I have to unbend my mind from Perl when I wander off into other languages. Some examples of my Perl accent include:

• I keep forgetting about meta-classes when I amble over to Python or CLOS.
• I have to remind myself that macros are useful in Lisp
• I have an awful temptation to sling everything into the local equivalent of a hash even when more appropriate data structures are available.
• Since currying is such a pain in Perl I tend to forget to use it in languages that support it nicely.
• etc.

You are right that Perl lacks (or discourages) certain things from other languages, so maybe the feature-rich distinction isn't so important as the TIMTOWDI distinction. Many languages try to do everything with one or two key tools. Because Perl borrows tools from so many other languages, I still question whether it has its own accent.

You can look unfamiliar with a language without having another language's accent. Of the things you list, throwing things in a hash might be one that is distinctively Perl-tinged — something that might make someone who reviews your code say, "You're trying to write Perl in Mumble!"

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You can look unfamiliar with a language without having another language's accent.

I don't really understand what your definition of accent is then ;-)

For me it's using one language in a non-idiomatic manner because your approach to solving problems has been pushed in one direction by another languages idioms.

For example, I'm not avoiding meta-classes in CLOS because I'm unfamiliar with the concept. I started learning OO with CLOS and other languages that supported meta-classes long before I came across Perl. I'm avoiding them because I've spent a lot of time coding type in Perl over the last few years, and Perl doesn't support classes in the same way as other OO languages.

Another example is when I started learning Ruby. I definitely wrote Ruby with a Perl accent for some time before I learned the more natural Ruby idioms. I had people comment on that fact because I was doing things like explicit loops rather than using iterators/continuations.

Of the things you list, throwing things in a hash might be one that is distinctively Perl-tinged

Don't forget the very Perlish "every problem can be solved with a regex" mindset.

(define print display)
(define $scalar 9)
(define @arr #(4 3 2))
(define %hash '((a . 1) (b . 2)))

(define (main args)
    (print (+ $scalar (vector-ref @arr 1)))
    (newline)
    (print (assoc 'b %hash)))
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