I ... am not sure which of the three languages you're familiar with, but I don't think that's remotely correct.
perl has block based lexical scoping and compile time variable name checking.
python and PHP both have neither, which continues to make me sad because I actually -do- believe that explicit is often better than implicit.
perl has dynamic scoping (including for variables inside async functions using the newer 'dynamically' keyword rather than the classic 'local'), which I don't think PHP does at all and python context managers are -slowly- approaching the same level of features as.
perl gives you access to solid async/await support, a defer keyword, more powerful/flexible OO than PHP or python, and a database/ORM stack that really only sqlalchemy is a meaningful competitor to of those I've used in other dynamic languages.
Sure, if you're writing perl like it's still 2004, it -does- kinda suck. But so did PHP 4.
The "why not use" argument is probably better made with respect to modern javascript (I'm really enjoying bun when I have the choice and I can live with node when I don't), since "let" and "use strict;" give you -close- to the same level of variable scoping, plus usable lambdas (though the dynamic scoping still sucks, hence things like React context being ... well, like they are), and the modern JS JITs smoke most things performance-wise.
Oh, and a bunch of people who used perl for systems/sysadmin type stuff have switched to go, which also makes complete sense - but using python after using perl -properly- has a significant tendency to invoke "but where's the other half of the language?" type feelings, and I think that's only somewhat unfair.
(python is still awesome in its own right, and PHP these days is at least tolerable (and I continue to be amazingly impressed by the things people -write- in PHP), but "worse php" is just a -silly- thing to say)
NB: If anybody wants specific examples, please feel free to ask, but this comment already got long enough, I think.
perl has block based lexical scoping and compile time variable name checking.
python and PHP both have neither, which continues to make me sad because I actually -do- believe that explicit is often better than implicit.
perl has dynamic scoping (including for variables inside async functions using the newer 'dynamically' keyword rather than the classic 'local'), which I don't think PHP does at all and python context managers are -slowly- approaching the same level of features as.
perl gives you access to solid async/await support, a defer keyword, more powerful/flexible OO than PHP or python, and a database/ORM stack that really only sqlalchemy is a meaningful competitor to of those I've used in other dynamic languages.
Sure, if you're writing perl like it's still 2004, it -does- kinda suck. But so did PHP 4.
The "why not use" argument is probably better made with respect to modern javascript (I'm really enjoying bun when I have the choice and I can live with node when I don't), since "let" and "use strict;" give you -close- to the same level of variable scoping, plus usable lambdas (though the dynamic scoping still sucks, hence things like React context being ... well, like they are), and the modern JS JITs smoke most things performance-wise.
Oh, and a bunch of people who used perl for systems/sysadmin type stuff have switched to go, which also makes complete sense - but using python after using perl -properly- has a significant tendency to invoke "but where's the other half of the language?" type feelings, and I think that's only somewhat unfair.
(python is still awesome in its own right, and PHP these days is at least tolerable (and I continue to be amazingly impressed by the things people -write- in PHP), but "worse php" is just a -silly- thing to say)
NB: If anybody wants specific examples, please feel free to ask, but this comment already got long enough, I think.