I still use Perl to this day because of Catalyst + DBIx::Class + CPAN. I can feel like I can do basically any web development task at least as elegantly, cleanly, and quickly as I could with Ruby or Python. Because of CPAN I think Perl probably wins more often than not on the speed aspect. I also tend to have a lot of backend stuff that runs as daemons/cronjobs, etc. Perl is really great for that stuff.<p>Perl 5 is obviously on the way out and Ruby/Python are coming in. But they're just passing by each other headed the opposite direction right now. The stigma Perl has just makes it seem worse than it is objectively.<p>Today Perl 5 is still a very reasonable choice IMHO. I'll switch to Ruby or Python full-time at some point. If Perl 6 ends up being better at some point I'll switch to that. We used to have to choose between C++ and Java and Perl. Perl was so much nicer. Now we have to choose between three languages that are all heaven by comparison. I don't really care which "wins" because I will no matter what.
Some utterly ridiculous FUD about Ruby in there. I can't make Java scale.. but that's not because it can't - just because I don't know Java well at all.<p>If you're not already good at something, <i>of course</i> it's easy to say something else doesn't work or isn't any good.
I agree with one redditor who blames perl6 for this state. Indeed, who would start a new project in perl5, when the language becomes obsolete by perl6, but on the other side, you have to wait and wait again for perl6 to be actually delivered.<p>I think they had to either deliver perl6 a few years ago, or not doing it at all and continue to improve perl5. But in this situation, many people are just not willing to invest into perl and are looking for the greener pastures.
I can't take an article serious that lists Visual Basic and Delphi among the top ten programming languages. Maybe they are still very common, but even if they really are, they are definitely not common in the "world" that I am interested in.