[gnosis]

Perl is definitely not languishing. It just gets a bad rap from fans of other languages that are competing with it (particularly from the fans of Python and Ruby, the two upstarts trying to take its place).

Let's look at the number of jobs advertised for Perl, Python, Ruby, and Lisp over the last 5 years:

http://www.indeed.com/jobtrends?q=perl%2Cpython%2Cruby%2Clis...

The number of Perl jobs is more than those of Python and Ruby put together. Lisp has so few jobs it doesn't even really show up on the chart.

Then there's Perl's CPAN archive, with over 17,000 modules, with about 30 modules updated or added per day. That much development is a sign of an active, alive community.

So the rumors of Perl's demise are greatly exaggerated.