It's been discussed before, but Python just seemed more straightforward to a lot of people. It had a built-in object oriented model as well when that was the rage instead of the weak default one and dozen modules on CPAN to do object oriented programming. There was generally one way to do something and that was easier to learn than TIMTOWTDI.

Yes, the answer is Python, Python, Python.

There's a reason the Zen of Python includes this:

"There should be one-- and preferably only one --obvious way to do it."

It also came with batteries included, which really lowered the learning curve.

Perl was well known for being a pain to read months after you wrote it. Most Python code in those days was readable by people who did not even know Python.

When I started my job in 2010, I took a class at work on Perl. I had done some Perl years before and had grown sick of it, but I thought I was just doing it "wrong" so I thought the course would tell me how to code in Perl "properly".

Nope - I'd been doing it "right" all along. I just hated the language. At the end of the course, I told the instructor (a graybeard) that he should just use Python, and that one day I'd teach the Python course and he should attend. He scoffed at the notion: "Languages will come and go, but Perl will always prevail!"

I never did teach that course, but I bumped into him about 7 years later. He had completely (and willingly) abandoned Perl for Python, and was a big Python advocate.

TIMTOWTDI broke down with trying to do OOP in Perl. You could either bless a hash, or use a meta-object framework (moose?). You could end up with hierarchies of different types of objects with their own behavior.

One of Python’s killer features is how easy it is to find a Python library wrapping some native code library written in C or Fortran. Those used to be notoriously difficult to write for Perl.