Rather than Perl-izing it, I would say: bringing it in line with most
of modern languages.
FWIW, Lua's solitary choice of ~= is a weird quirk.
Personally I'd prefer ¬= myself. Because ! to me means "send message" in a language I use that's far more modern than C or C++ or any of the other curly brace blight languages.
I cannot believe that people are calling syntax from a language created in the '60s (be very careful before trying to challenge me on this date!) "modern".
-- "Perhaps people don't believe this, but throughout all of the discussions of entering China our focus has really been what's best for the Chinese people. It's not been about our revenue or profit or whatnot."
--Sergey Brin, demonstrating the emptiness of the "don't be evil" mantra.
