Perl supports eval like lots of languages because data CAN be code. It's only in homoiconic languages like Common Lisp, Scheme, Racket, Clojure, and Rebol/Red that code IS data. Just because you have EVAL doesn't make it a 1:1 relationship and that makes a big difference. If your code/data is just a big AST, then macros are trivial and that prompts you to write DSLs...etc.
Right, I'm not even just talking about code as data in a homoiconic sense but literally just, code is a bag of instructions (jumps, load, store, add, etc) regardless of if your language is homoiconic or not. Maybe the point that can be made is that exposure to a homoiconic language earlier helps bridge this gap faster?
