[gurtwo]

> Why would I ever use this instead of just using perl5

Because the syntax in Amber is way easier to grasp. For me that's a very strong selling point

[galdosdi]

Have you tried perl or are you just judging it based on strreotypes? The only weird syntax relative to something like JavaScript is $ at the front of variables.

There's a lot of funky syntax and features available but you do not have to use any of them. If you are writing a new script from scratch it is easy to make it look almost the same as JavaScript but with every variable having a $ on front.

Also, amber is a new indie language. Perl has way more resources. I assure you amber will be harder to master including God knows what bugs are in the compiler you'll have to encounter and work around.

[inhumantsar]

maybe this is outdated prejudice at this point but I learned early that perl as a language is fine, right up until you need to deal with scripts someone else wrote. particularly scripts written in anger.

[HL33tibCe7]

> There's a lot of funky syntax and features available but you do not have to use any of them.

The problem is that it's difficult to know which features you should use and which you shouldn't. And good luck enforcing your desired style if you're working with other developers (it's possible, but painful).

Perl is a highly complicated language with many sharp edges that catch out even experienced Perl devs.

The Perl ecosystem is also completely dead: modules languish with no updates, there is no decent tooling to speak of.

Of course, this new language also has no ecosystem. But maybe one day it will. Let's not stamp out its flame for no reason.

[pronik]

Perl was literally reborn with "Perl Best Practices". Perl::Critic has more rules that you'd ever wish for, Perl::Tidy is the most configurable code formatter there is. This had been true for 10-15 years already. Which part do you find painful and is this your idea of "no decent tooling"?

[mlhpdx]

You're arguing against Perl or JavaScript?