There's a whole section in the manual [1] for string quoting operators (qq, qw, qx, ...)
In general, I feel like Perl is one of those languages that has a high amount of these "quality of life" syntactic features, and helps make it enjoyable to write, once you get over the learning curve.
usernames = '''
foo bar baz
hello world
'''.split()
# instead of this, which needs too many keystrokes
usernames = ["foo", "bar", "baz", "hello", "world"]
# all of these are equivalent
EmployeeRecord = namedtuple('EmployeeRecord', ['name', 'age', 'title'])
EmployeeRecord = namedtuple('EmployeeRecord', 'name, age, title')
EmployeeRecord = namedtuple('EmployeeRecord', 'name age title')Julia allows[2] defining your own non-standard string literals. foo"bar"hee and qux`...` desugar as macro calls foo_str("bar","hee") and bar_cmd("..."). But lack the bracket flexibility.
http://rigaux.org/language-study/syntax-across-languages.htm... briefly sketches other languages.
[1] https://docs.raku.org/language/quoting [2] https://docs.julialang.org/en/v1/manual/metaprogramming/#met...
But you give up something to get benefits in those areas. Making use of the expressive power of something like Perl is a wonderful sensation. The barriers between thought and making it happen are lower, and so you can be remarkably productive. It is also just more fun, I find, which has subtle and under-valued long-term benefits.
But yeah, agreed that comprehending someone else's Perl-fueled vision quest can be ... rough (: