4 ms·

I wish the language the best, but I find it a bit confusing to call it Perl 6. It is basically a new language, something different than Perl (5).

• PeCaN 10y ago
  That's basically everyone's sentiment in the Perl community right now. Perl6 is a nice language (I mean, I'm not a huge fan, but it's not bad either) but it's a language that has some Perl influences but is definitely not Perl. It's like if Ruby was called Smalltalk 2.
  • Diederich 10y ago
    > everyone's sentiment in the Perl community right now Definitely not 'everyone'. And I strongly suspect it's not even 'most'. There has been a relatively small but very vocal group with this point of view.
    • Mithaldu 10y ago
      It is not just a sentiment, but a fact that Perl 6 being called Perl 6 has hurt Perl 5. The only reason you don't have a lot of people telling Larry to stop being stubborn about this issue is that the milk is already spilled.
      • Diederich 10y ago
        I wonder if you can share the data behind this fact? I'm always looking to add missing datapoints to my brain. Much appreciated!
        • Mithaldu 10y ago
          The data is obvious online, in that many many people have to be explained that they're different languages, with a good part of those also stating that they gave up on Perl 5 since "Perl 6 is coming"; as well as in direct talks with companies as early as 5+ years ago already when many german companies told me they're delaying further investments in Perl 5, since "Perl 6 is coming".
          • Diederich 10y ago
            Thank you. I don't doubt that Perl6 has had some negative impact on Perl5. However, I and many others believe that Perl6's positive influences on the Perl5 community far outweigh the downsides. For starters, the whole Moose:: ecosystem (https://metacpan.org/pod/distribution/Moose/lib/Moose/Manual.pod https://metacpan.org/pod/distribution/Moose/lib/Moose/Manual...) would arguably not have existed were it not for Perl6. And there are quite a few other examples. Perl5 is a vibrant, active language: https://metacpan.org/recent https://metacpan.org/recent I understand your perspective though.
            • mirchibajji 10y ago
              I think the parent's point was just about the name of the language. If it were called something like "P6" instead, it would have helped avoid some confusion - especially among those who are only peripherally involved with Perl. FWIW, I use and love Perl5, and completely agree with your assessment.
            • Mithaldu 10y ago
              Perl 6 has done many good things to Perl 5, yes. However the name being what it is has hurt Perl 5, and that was the topic being discussed here.
              • Diederich 10y ago
                Understood, thank you.