Perl 🐪 Weekly #755 - Does TIOBE help Perl?

Source: Dev.to

Hi there!

Dave Cross has an article showing the position of Perl on the TIOBE index.
As I don’t see any up‑tick in new subscribers to the Perl Weekly nor an increase in the MetaCPAN activity I keep track of, I doubt that the changes in the position reflect actual changes in the market.

However, I wonder: could the TIOBE index have an impact on interest in Perl? How and when could we see that?

Speaking of the MetaCPAN report, I’d love it if someone sent a PR to the Perl Weekly that would generate the same graphs using these numbers. Here is the issue for it.

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 of changes in the way I’m collecting the data, or are those real changes?

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!

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ANNOUNCE: Perl.Wiki v 1.37

Get it, as usual, from his Wiki Haven.

Marlin Racing

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The Perl Claude Agent

A library that brings the agentic capabilities of Claude Code into your Perl applications.

Manwar sending a Pull‑Request to JQ::Lite

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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See also the discussion.

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Discussion

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The Weekly Challenge

The Weekly Challenge by Mohammad Sajid Anwar will help you step out of your comfort zone.
You can even win $50 by participating. We pick one champion at the end of the month from among all contributors, thanks to sponsor Lance Wicks.

The Weekly Challenge – 356

Welcome to a new week with a couple of fun tasks:

• Kolakoski Sequence
• Who Wins

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For more information, please read the FAQ.

RECAP – The Weekly Challenge – 355

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.

Mountain Separator

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 hyper‑operators and the pipeline style might need supplemental explanation.

Perl Weekly Challenge: Week 355

Technically solid, readable, and well‑structured.
The solutions are both correct and practical, illustrating good problem decomposition and Perl/Raku coding style.

Separated Mountains

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.

Number formatting and sorting

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.

Perl Weekly Challenge 355

The solutions for Weekly Challenge #355 are technically strong, correct, and efficient.
Task 2 (Mountain Array) leverages PDL for vectorised comparisons, producing a concise, single‑pass check while correctly handling edge cases such as plateaus and short arrays.

Thousand Mountains

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.

Oh to live on Array Mountain…

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.

Thousands of Mountains

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.

The Weekly Challenge #355 (again)

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.

Mountains by the Thousand

A thoughtful, well‑structured solution to both Weekly Challenge tasks, with a clear emphasis on explicit logic and readability.

Weekly Perl Digest

Highlights

• State‑based reasoning – Emphasizing clear logic over library tricks.
• Cross‑language fluency – Roger showcases solid algorithm design across languages.

“Commify every mountain.”

This Week’s Challenge

The Weekly Challenge #355 – Clean, pragmatic, and idiomatic solutions for both tasks.
Focus: using the right tool for the job, clarity, and efficiency rather than algorithmic novelty.

Community News

• NICEPERL’s Lists – New CPAN modules released last week.
• Perl Maven Online – Live open‑source contribution sessions.

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