Perl perfected the simplicity and flexibility of regex syntax from POSIX and it seems every other language after has just made it harder.

> I guess it shows how far off the radar Perl currently is.

This is a serious misconception. Perl is far, far from dead. The constant activity of the gargantuan CPAN library more than demonstrates very much the opposite.

I would say Perl and its community has done quite well considering it hasn't had the same mountain of corporate funds thrust into it like more highlighted have. Mainstream ain't everything.

I don't think "off the radar" means dead, but that people aren't generally aware of what's going on with it. I think this is actually pretty consistent with what you're saying; stuff is going on with it, but it's not on people's radar, so they don't realize it.

Fair enough point.

PHP uses PCRE, so it more or less serves as a stand-in for Perl in this case.

Sort of, though PCRE is not a 100% replacement for regex in Perl proper; the former lacks some features of the latter.