> The ability to use a high-level, dynamic language (ObjC),
> C, and even inline assembly in a single source file
> is unique to Objective-C (at least among the
> "mainstream" languages)[...]
Of course if you do this in Perl every one of your calls will need to go through a foreign function interface where Perl's structures are translated back & forth between its idea of datastructures and the OS's idea, avoiding that is what people really mean when they talk about the "C ABI".