I read that as: it gives the impression it's been here forever, it's still being actively maintained, and will be for the foreseeable future. Benefiting from the “future” (sqlite4/perl6) at a slow but steady peace. So, really like Perl 5.

perl5 has been stealing a bunch of stuff from perl6 and is still actively maintained and doing a major release with new features annually - also continues to Just Work with an extreme commitment to backcompat.

So I'm pretty sure he did mean perl5, and as a happy user of both perl5 and sqlite the comparison seems apt.

For context, rurban has had a long-ongoing feud with the perl5 maintainers that eventually resulted in his removal from the mailing list for being unwilling or unable to disagree sufficiently civilly to hold an effective discussion when people felt he was technically incorrect.

He's also, OTOH, a technically brilliant developer whose positive contributions will be missed.

(also if you ever run into him at a conference, I'd recommend grabbing a beer with him, I've always enjoyed doing so in spite of our spirited disagreements over various things)