perl is APL on LSD

		-- sethf
---
I think of perl as an optimizer for hackers' stories.  ("You think that
was good...I just reimplemented the C compiler in perl".)

		-- jfc
---
It's really powerful.  It's sort of a kludge which makes it easier to write
other kludges.

		-- bjaspan
---
Perl semantics are much too toxic for ordinary household use.

		-- Felix Lee <flee@cs.psu.edu>
---
Perl is the yiddish of computer languages.

		-- eichin
---
Perl is unparralleled [sic] in its ability for someone to come up with
code which sends chills up my spine and makes me run screaming from
the room.

		-- ccount
---
It's not cool to write obscure C code anymore, so Larry wrote perl
so people could write obscure perl code.

		-- bjaspan
---
Perl is the ultimate expression of self-righteous geekiness.

		-- dcctdw
---
Chicks dig perl programmers.

		-- fplozano
---
Camels don't just have bugs. They have fleas. :-)

		-- dkk
---
Perl is like visegrips. The wrong tool for every job... but it will
*do* every job.

		-- eichin
---
From comp.lang.lisp:
   A thought that occurs to me is that the rapid adoption of perl in the
   Unix community is a back-door defection to a philosophy that Lisp folks
   have been preaching for years.  In perl, one is partly abandoning the
   the notion of small, stand-alone tools that do one thing well, and
   instead adopting the monolithic everything-in-one-language approach that
   Lisp has always had.  You know.  "Swiss army chainsaw."  Perl simply
   makes this palatable to the Unix community by leaving out some of the
   parenthesis and including a baroque syntax and idiosyncratic semantics.  :-)
---
Writing efficient Perl is a black art.

		-- Felix Lee <flee@cs.psu.edu>
---
BUT, ...  for quickie system whacking, perl is the right one
baby, uh-huh.

		-- Randall S. Krebs <rkrebs@dsd.es.com>
---
It slices, it dices, it even juliennes!

		-- Felix Lee <flee@cs.psu.edu>
---
But we language-designers should be forgiving of perl's faults.
Remember, it's something that grew, and wasn't really designed
at all.  View it as a piece of natural history, rather than a
machine.  Yes, a donkey is a rather asinine machine for turning
oats into CO2 and H20 while carrying loads, but hey, *I* didn't
have to design it, and its free, and even self-reproducing!

		-- Bob Kerns <rwk@crl.dec.com>
---
Welcome to perl, which has absolutely the most perverse semantics I've
ever seen.  It's essentially an overgrown collection of hacks.  What's
so weird is that it is still useful despite this.

		-- Bob Kerns <rwk@crl.dec.com>
---
Ah, but perl isn't just another insane language,
it's the insane language of choice!

		-- kagraves
---
It's a crock, but it's a useful crock.

		-- bjaspan

---
The main difference between TECO and Perl is that in Perl, it's
*possible* to write readable programs.

		-- Larry Wall <lwall@netlabs.com>
---
Perl is just such a miracle

		-- jik
---
Perl used for Biblical studies. A sure sign of impending armageddon...

		-- kagraves
---
LARRY 14:6  Perl saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man
   cometh unto the Unix, but by me.

		-- shabby

(bonus points if you know which book this is hacked from)
---
In actual fact, I asked for a camel for various right-brain reasons,
not the least of which is that camels are ugly and have an attitude...

		-- Larry Wall <lwall@netlabs.com>
---
Yep, that's what Perl is: a damn fool fighting Camel.  :-)

		-- Larry Wall <lwall@netlabs.com>
---
Perl may be garbage, but at least it's mostly portable :-).

		-- wesommer
---
A system without PERL is like a hockey game without a fight.

		-- Mitch Wright <???>
---
It's more like a tank than a mine field.  It may be ugly, but it
shoots straight and gets you where you're going, if you don't mind a
few squashed daisies."

		-- Larry Wall <lwall@netlabs.com>
---
... and have come to the conclusion that it takes a special kind of person
to be a Perlman (excuse me - a Perlperson).  With no disrespect intended
to anyone, I have a hunch that most of the ones that have this intutition
are the offspring of an APL programmer and an Assembly Language programmer.
Probably conceived on company time, amongst the coke cans and discarded
cartons of takeout chinese food.  (a self-defensive :-) here )

		-- John Nall <nall@sun8.scri.fsu.edu>
---
PERL is like a drug.
Sharing PERL code is like sharing needles.

Economic, and occasionally highly dangerous.

		-- jhbrown
---
Programming in a scripting language is like trying to assemble a ship
in a bottle while wearing gloves.

Programming in perl is like trying to assemble a ship in a bottle
while wearing gloves with tweezers on them.

		-- nosaj
---
Csh for the users doomed to give in
Sed for the programmers looking in /bin
Awk for the hackers who make users cower
Perl for the wizards who hold the true power

One Kluge to rule them all, One Kluge to find them
One Kluge to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them
In the land of *NIX where the shadows lie

		-- mkgray
---
It is well known that power and simplicity are inversely proportional.
Perl epitomizes that.

		-- marc
---