Ask HN: Is Perl 5 or Perl 6 still worth learning in 2019?

I would say it’s only worth learning Perl 5 if you work in a shop that has a lot of old Perl code, otherwise Python is probably the most sensible option to learn (as much as it pains me to say) if you haven’t got a job yet. It will also help you with tools like ansible. Go might also have a future where Perl once thrived since you can compile your dependencies into the program. Dependencies sort of sucks with all scripting languages.

Perl 6 is my go to scripting language. The concerns about code styles don't apply at that point because it's all me. And the multi paradigm nature of Perl 6 means I can solve any given algorithm using a style that fits how I'm feeling in that moment.

Hi! Try out Sparrow6 - https://github.com/melezhik/Sparrow6 to glue various cli scripts, automation and configuration management.

Perl knowledge has been extremely valuable for me, but I first learned it when it was still the scripting language of choice for just about everything (web, CLI, one-liners, etc.). Even Perl 5 is multi-paradigm and that's been helpful for me when I find myself parachuting into a new codebase in some language I don't know well. It's been easy for me to pick up Ruby, Python, JavaScript, Tcl, and even Rust, because of my Perl knowledge. I don't know if many other languages are quite as effective at teaching that kind of cross-paradigmatic approach, and Perl 6 should be even more effective, since it integrates even more paradigms.

I still prefer Perl 5 for most CLI scripting tasks, but use Python for a lot of stuff lately because I work with others who know Python and don't know Perl. Perl has better docs than Python (the Python standard docs are almost entirely free of usage examples which is just plain terrible). Perl has better out of the box support for writing good CLI tools. e.g. color and better options parsing are in the standard modules, which require additional modules in Python. I also think Perl has better testing tools included, though this one may be a matter of taste. Perl used to have a better/friendlier community than almost any other language, but that's no longer really the case...it's a lot of old-timers who can be extremely impatient with new learners (there's been discussion of this problem and there is a desire to do better, but it's still a thing).

The biggest OSS project I work on is almost entirely in Perl 5, so I still have reasons to keep using Perl, but I also tinker with Perl 6 now and then for fun...it's a cool language that I always seem to learn something new from. I might even take a stab at re-writing portions of our Perl 5 code in Perl 6 at some point.