Looks like I am finally making the switch away from Perl. I starting learning Ruby yesterday and so far it is everything i wanted from Perl 6, which has yet to see the light of development day. I am also enjoying Ruby far more than Python, a language i still somewhat despise. The following quote from the 2nd Edition of Ruby Programming by Dave Thomas illustrates why i prefer Ruby over Python:

... Ruby is a transparent language. When you write a Ruby program, you concentrate on getting the job done, not on building scaffolding to support the language itself.

And the following quote from "To Ruby From Perl" illustrates why i feel comfortable switching from Perl to Ruby (rather than waiting one second longer for Perl 6)

Although $ and @ are used as the first character in variable names sometimes, rather than indicating type, they indicate scope ...

But the latter quote warrants further discussion: Ruby is not afraid to use sigils like Perl (Python) but it is also not afraid to challenge the fundamental design choices that i feel really matter as opposed to ones that otherwise serve egos (Perl6). I am not saying the Perl6 community did not make fundamental changes, they did. I am saying they made the wrong changes/choices. Speaking of which, what you just read are all my personal choices/opinions. And as such i don't have to defend them. But i do want to announce that from this day forward i am serious about Ruby.