I'm sorry if my comment seemed condescending, but it is a sad fact that many people learned Perl only by reading code and looking up small bits and pieces they don't immediately grok (instead of turning towards and consuming, complete and well-written learning resources both in the perldoc references and books) and then walk away with completely skewed impressions and share them with the world at large.

I wish i had a more polite way of pointing this out when people make complaints, but i have not found one yet. Maybe you have a suggestion?