That is serialization, which is one purpose for converting to a string. Dynamic languages already tend to be able to print objects in a way that's meaningful -- such as most REPL-based languages that have a reader (or eval) and a printer. As do ML-derived languages the print in constructor format, but they tend not to have readers or eval. Having it called .perl in this case is already a step in the right direction from toString, as you know what its for.
