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Issue #755 - 2026-01-12 - Does TIOBE help Perl?
latest | archive | edited by Gabor Szabo
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Hi there! Dave Cross has an article showing position of Perl on the TIOBE index. As I don't see any up-tick in new subscribers to the Perl Weekly nor do I see any increase in the MetaCPAN activity I keep track of, I doubt that the changes in the position reflects actual changes in the market. However I wonder, could the TIOBE index have an impact on the interest in Perl? How and when could we see that? Speaking of the MetaCPAN report, I'd love if someone sent a PR to the Perl Weekly that would generates same graphs using these numbers. Here is the issue for it. And another comment related to those stats. I just noticed that the No CI column went up from 30-40% to 80-90% in recent weeks. I wonder why? Is it because some changes in the way I am collecting the data or are those real changes? Is it real change? I also just noticed some negative numbers in the No VCS (%) column. That's not good. I guess I have to investigate this. Maybe during one of the Perl code reading and open source contribution events. Enjoy your week! Gabor Szabo |
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Announcements
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by James E Keenan New York Perlmongers (NY.PM) has a new mailing-list organized as a Google Group. Sign up here. (Note: we are not doing unrequested transfers from our previous mailing list.) NY.PM social event: Thursday, January 15, 6:00 pm EST at Barcade, 148 West 24 St, Manhattan: send-off for a long-time member returning to the U.K. |
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Articles
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by Robert Acock It's a library that brings the agentic capabilities of Claude Code into your Perl applications. |
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by Mohammad Sajid Anwar (MANWAR) This video was recorded during the most recent Perl code reading and open source contribution event. For links check out the OSDC Perl page and join us at our next event! | 
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Discussion
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Allowing your users to put regexes in a configuration file. Is it a good idea? How to do it? |
MetaCPAN
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The ElasticSearch upgrade on MetaCPAN impaceted a number of other web site, but it seems things are working again. |
Perl
The Weekly Challenge
The Weekly Challenge by Mohammad Sajid Anwar will help you step out of your comfort-zone. You can even win prize money of $50 by participating in the weekly challenge. We pick one champion at the end of the month from among all of the contributors during the month, thanks to the sponsor Lance Wicks.
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by Mohammad Sajid Anwar (MANWAR) Welcome to a new week with a couple of fun tasks "Kolakoski Sequence" and "Who Wins". If you are new to the weekly challenge then why not join us and have fun every week. For more information, please read the FAQ. |
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by Mohammad Sajid Anwar (MANWAR) Enjoy a quick recap of last week's contributions by Team PWC dealing with the "Thousand Separator" and "Mountain Array" tasks in Perl and Raku. You will find plenty of solutions to keep you busy. |
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by Arne Sommer The post demonstrates an idiomatic and compact use of Raku for typical programming challenges. It balances expressive language features with clarity, though readers unfamiliar with hyperoperators and the pipeline style might need supplemental explanation. | 
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by Jaldhar H. Vyas Technically solid, readable, and well-structured. The solutions are both correct and practical, illustrating good problem decomposition and Perl/Raku coding style. |
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by Jorg Sommrey Efficient and idiomatic Perl for the thousand separator using a classic unpack pattern.️ A formally defined mountain array solution with vectorised and language-diverse implementations. |
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by Luca Ferrari This is a well‑engineered, comprehensive, and professionally presented technical write‑up that goes beyond minimal solutions to showcase how to solve the Weekly Challenge across ecosystems. It favors clarity and breadth over micro‑optimizations, making it valuable for learners and polyglot developers alike. |
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by W Luis Mochan The solutions for Weekly Challenge #355 are technically strong, correct, and efficient. Task 2 (Mountain Array) leverages PDL for vectorized comparisons, producing a concise, single-pass check for mountain arrays while correctly handling edge cases such as plateaus and short arrays. | 
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by Matthias Muth This is technically excellent, showing a high level of Perl proficiency, algorithmic awareness, and performance consciousness. Both tasks are solved correctly, with multiple alternative implementations explored and benchmarked, demonstrating a thoughtful and professional approach rather than a "just pass the tests" mentality. |
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by Packy Anderson (PACKY) This post is a strong, well-executed multi-language technical write-up that emphasizes algorithmic reasoning, clarity of transformation, and comparative programming paradigms over minimalism or raw performance. | 
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by Peter Campbell Smith This submission demonstrates strong problem understanding, solid algorithmic choices, and pragmatic Perl coding. The solutions are intentionally explicit, readable, and correct, favoring clarity and single-pass logic over clever one-liners. Both tasks are handled with approaches that scale reasonably and align well with Perl’s strengths. | 
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by Robbie Hatley This submission is technically strong, correct, and deliberately written for clarity and maintainability rather than brevity. It reflects an experienced Perl programmer who values explicit logic, readable structure, and thorough documentation. |
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by Roger Bell West (FIREDRAKE) This is a thoughtful, well-structured solution to both Weekly Challenge tasks, with a clear emphasis on explicit logic and state-based reasoning rather than relying on library tricks. Roger demonstrates good cross-language fluency and a solid grasp of algorithm design. |
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by Simon Green (SGREEN) This post delivers clean, pragmatic, and idiomatic solutions to both tasks in The Weekly Challenge #355. It emphasizes using the right tool for the job, clarity, and efficiency over algorithmic novelty. | 
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