Neolithic

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I'm taking the position that awk may be a stone aged tool, but like a Clovis point it represents the very finest craftsmanship of that age: simple in form, highly functional, and beautifully constructed with everything it needs for its task and nothing else.

And no, perl is not a better example. Larry bolted everything including the kitchen sink onto it. That certainly made it more functional, but it also made it ugly. I'm not highly conversant with the vast array of choices in the rapid development marketplace, but I would judge that both ruby and python come a lot closer than perl to the goal of being at once all-singing-all-dancing and beautiful. Tcl/tk is right out and I an happy having no basis on which to judge php.