I actually think it works when you are in the ecosystem fulltime for a good while.

But having to interact with it once in a while is always a hurdle. The same with bash. Do I use [ or [[? Where does the semi-colon go? if then fi, but while do done (and not elihw). -eq or =? Functions have () but no parameters.

I'm sure those things make sense when all you write is Bash / Perl, but it's daunting.

Now, Python can get pretty far out there too with Meta-programming, and JavaScript can get confusing with prototyping. And Ruby (especially RoR) takes the crown, where they resolve variables at the moment the line executes. Makes debugging blocks really hard.

The less magic in code the better.

You realize you can learn all of this easily online, I hope? Sure it turns out that a scripting language maintaining compatibility with scripts from 40+ years ago has some confusing aspects. That’s the price of such incredible staying power.