> Perl maintains strict backwards compatibility. I can run code that was written decades ago.

I used to spout that off too, but I now think it is just a myth. When the leader/creator of the language abandons it and it sits there stagnate for years, what other "feature" can you advertise? I know, "strict compatibility"! I saw it as a feature as well and even used it as an excuse to not learn python.

But even worse it has tainted an entire generation of small business perl dev shops. They seem to think that they can't move to another language because every couple of years back compatibility in language X breaks and at the same time spout off how their perl CGI scripts from 1998 still work fine ("fine" because it hasn't been hacked yet). Ironically doing this all from their windows laptop that has broken compatibility through many release cycles.

Breaking compatibility and refactoring is a sign of health, not death! But now these old school dev shops have large customer bases on old perl who's customers are not used to paying for any kind "upgrade" (and now they never will be). Contrast that with every now and then on /r/django someone will post a question like "my development firm is wanting to charge me $3k to upgrade from django 1.2 to 2.0 before they will add any new features to my web shop. Is that a good deal?". Its just a fact of life now. Software needs to be upgraded. The only reason that perl apps aren't at the top of all security and sql injection attacks is because there are so few of them (combined with the fact that so much of "perl apps" are custom code from the ground up). Never upgrading your stuff is not a "feature".

It's the same with python 2.7 as well. That is because it is dead, it now has "strict compatibility"!

> I really am curious what features you think Perl 5 lacks.

That's a good question. Really, perl can do anything that python can. So what gives? I think the biggest thing that I struggle with just goes back to the "community". I'm trying to stay brief as not to out myself or my last company, but in most cases I was given requirements for a new project and I was off on my own. That's fine. But sometimes I'd be given requirements for a new project and then get micromanaged. As in literally told how to organize the entire project down to little bits like "when a user registers a new account, a function will return a random string 6 characters long and be sent via email to the user and this password will be stored in clear text". That is not the exact case, the real case belongs on codinghorror.com.

But the point I make is given requirements that break normal sane patterns, in python I could go to a mailing list or /r/python and post my issue and expect plenty of answers that I could then show my boss that he is not right. That does not exist in the perl world. I'm sure some perl guys will try to chime in and disagree but it is true. I have asked several question on /r/perl to get advice on really stupid architectural requirements but got 0 responses. The same goes for the perl mailing lists and irc. Its all dead. Many times I've posted to python lists pretending to be making a flask app or something just to get some advice on some webdev best practices, etc, not easy questions but just looking for a discussion. It's embarrassing on the perl side.