> I know that people love to hate on Python's semantic whitespace, but this is the first time that I've seen someone argue that Python's lifespan is limited because we are about to enter a period of exponential growth in the number of whitespace characters.

I think the various Unicode whitespace characters are likely to gain more use generally. The big problem though is that whitespace characters all look alike and so you can't read and parse the way a computer does.

> Are you trying to imply that using an ORM is the sign of someone trying to "whip something together fast?" What are your feelings on DBIx::Class? Should those people who use it jump ship to some other language so that you can bid then "good riddance?"

Not really. ORMs can be used in significant applications and in fact a lot of people use DBIx::Class that way in Catalyst etc. I am referring specifically to the quick and dirty app crowd. You have PHP, Python, Javascript (via Node.js) and Ruby largely taking that role over. And that's fine. Perl is a wonderful language, but to write good quality, maintainable, robust code in it takes some work. But that work is well rewarded.