An aside, but I am curious: as an old hat today, I now find that using the Perl RE (though some of it lives on through sed) syntax as "we used to do back in the day" in regular communications confuses most people. People are usually unfamiliar with it, so I am slowly phasing it out.
What's your experience? And what do the "kids" use these days to indicate alternative options (as above — though for that, I use bash {} syntax too) or to signal "I changed my mind" or "let me fix that for you"?
I've never used Perl and I am not confused. It's just an eyeroll-inducing referential joke, and ironically a perfect example of OP's point. See also: $BIGCORP, Day_Job, etc
They could have just said "the most important language [...] is spoken language".
What's your experience? And what do the "kids" use these days to indicate alternative options (as above — though for that, I use bash {} syntax too) or to signal "I changed my mind" or "let me fix that for you"?