[INTERFACES] RFC: server-side perl for pgsql?

A recent response in another list got me thinking about how one might
leverage the wealth of functionality available in open source perl
modules. Specifically, how to do it in the pgsql server rather than
in clients so that clients of all types could take advantage of the
functionality through user-defined db functions. Personally, I
haven't done anything with user-defined functions beyond fairly
straight-forward PL/pgSQL. I assume it's possible given it is
possible to call perl functions from C.

Would anyone mind briefly sharing their experience and/or any lessons
learned using server-side perl (or maybe python or tcl) for
user-defined functions in postgresql? Have these efforts been
successful for you? What would you do differently if you did it
again?

Regards,
Ed Loehr