Great article Lars. As someone now doing medium Perl development (like 60,000 lines per project) I would have to say that although Perl is accidental as an "Agile" language, it was grown by people who know very well about things like compiler theory.

And although it is completely optional (as per The Perl Way), Perl’s OO constructs are really very effective.

I would have to say that Perl is now by far my most favourite language (and I know quite a few).

In his recent book <a href="http://paulgraham.com">Paul Graham</a> argues:

<blockquote>If you look at these languages in order, Java, Perl, Python, Ruby, you’ll notice an interesting pattern. At least, you notice this pattern if you are a Lisp hacker. Each one is progressively more like Lisp. Python copies even features that many Lisp hackers consider to be mistakes. And if you’d shown people Ruby in 1975 and described it as a dialect of Lisp with syntax, no one would have argued with you. Programming languages have almost caught up with 1958.</blockquote>

You’ll find an older version of this at <a href="http://paulgraham.com/icad.html ">http://paulgraham.com/icad.html</a> (the reference to Ruby was added later and included only in the book).
<p>
Also, in his <a href="http://paulgraham.com/lispfaq1.html">Lisp FAQ</a>:
<blockquote>
<b>I like Lisp but my company won’t let me use it. What should I do?</b>
<p>
Try to get them to let you use Python. Often when your employer won’t let you use Lisp it’s because (whatever the official reason) the guy in charge of your department is afraid of the way Lisp source code looks. Python looks like an ordinary dumb language, but semantically it has a lot in common with Lisp, and has been getting closer to Lisp over time.
<p>
They might even let you use Ruby, which is even more Lisp-like.
</blockquote>