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This is frankly terrible advertisement for Perl 6. I guess it is targeted at people that are already well-versed in Perl 6 (or at least Perl 5)? Maybe it shoul

This is frankly terrible advertisement for Perl 6. I guess it is targeted at people that are already well-versed in Perl 6 (or at least Perl 5)? Maybe it should say so at the top so that people like me do not get a terrible first impression of it.

chombier 9y ago
It made me wonder whether OP's goal was no in fact to drive people away from Perl by posting this.
tomalpha 9y ago
Back in the day, I wrote a load of Perl 5 and certainly used to consider myself well-versed in it. Perl 6, at least seen through the lens of this post, doesn't appear to have fixed the write-only nature of Perl 5 and it's amazing ability to help you create truly obfuscated code first time round. No tools required. unit module Jolly; sub term:«\c[INVISIBLE TIMES]» is export { 42 } sub infix:«\c[INVISIBLE TIMES]» is export { $^a × $^b } sub prefix:«\c[INVISIBLE SEPARATOR]» (|) is looser(&[,]) is export { say "Ho-ho-ho!"; } In order to have the line: ⁣say 42⁢⁢; # OUTPUT: # 1764 # Ho-ho-ho! Neat tricks within the scope of the language itself perhaps, and despite everything it is great to see progress on Perl 6 even if only for reasons of nostalgia. Not a great advert for a modern language though.
- colomon 9y ago
  Perl 6 contains a bunch of really powerful tools, like the ability to create operators from any (non-whitespace) Unicode string, wrap subs and methods, or rewire the language's grammar on the fly. Unsurprisingly, this sort of power can cause a lot of trouble if used with ill-intent. It also can make for wonderfully expressive, clean programs.
  - petre 9y ago
    With great power comes great responsibility.
- smacktoward 9y ago
  > Perl 6, at least seen through the lens of this post, doesn't appear to have fixed the write-only nature of Perl 5 and it's amazing ability to help you create truly obfuscated code first time round. Despite all evidence, the Perl community persists in considering this a feature, not a bug. Which is a big part of why the Perl community is so much smaller these days than it used to be.
mhd 9y ago
The Perl advent calenders have a pretty long tradition and are mostly about tinkering with the language, presenting new modules etc. Often with a christmas/Santa theme. In other words, they're about "hacking"... They also server as a decent health check (e.g. Catalyst seems pretty much dead), but aren't really about advertising.
acomjean 9y ago
I want to like perl6, I really do. The language has some simply great features. I agree with the parent, this seems like a terrible way to get people new into the language. I do a fair amount of perl5 script maintenance, so am familiar with the language. Advents calendars are daily small chunks, an Ideal way to introduce the language but they turned this into a "look how clever" our language is post, which to me is "wow this is hard to read and maintain." Lamentably these examples don't give me hope that Perl6 is going to be any better at being maintained.
- dsnuh 9y ago
  I still think that if they had just called it something other than Perl, they may have picked up a little more traction.
  - jrs95 9y ago
    Perhaps it's not too late for rebranding it?
    - dsnuh 9y ago
      I'm not sure at this point. I used to write quite a bit of Perl 5 and didn't really understand why Perl 6 seemed like it was trying to be everything to everyone and I didn't see what problem domain it was really the obvious choice for picking it over another easier to comprehend language.
    - natch 9y ago
      They are stuck with the community and the culture they have, I think. A different name would not change the nature of what it is.
      - dsnuh 9y ago
        True, but even if they had just called it Parrot or Lerp or Rakudo or really anything but Perl 6, I feel like they could have attracted the kind of new userbase to augment an already thriving community. I didn't follow along with all 594 years of development, it seemed to me like Larry just went nuts with adding every CS novelty. It didn't feel like a language for mere mortals to me anymore.

chombier 9y ago

It made me wonder whether OP's goal was no in fact to drive people away from Perl by posting this.

tomalpha 9y ago

Back in the day, I wrote a load of Perl 5 and certainly used to consider myself well-versed in it. Perl 6, at least seen through the lens of this post, doesn't appear to have fixed the write-only nature of Perl 5 and it's amazing ability to help you create truly obfuscated code first time round. No tools required. unit module Jolly; sub term:«\c[INVISIBLE TIMES]» is export { 42 } sub infix:«\c[INVISIBLE TIMES]» is export { $^a × $^b } sub prefix:«\c[INVISIBLE SEPARATOR]» (|) is looser(&[,]) is export { say "Ho-ho-ho!"; } In order to have the line: ⁣say 42⁢⁢; # OUTPUT: # 1764 # Ho-ho-ho! Neat tricks within the scope of the language itself perhaps, and despite everything it is great to see progress on Perl 6 even if only for reasons of nostalgia. Not a great advert for a modern language though.

colomon 9y ago
Perl 6 contains a bunch of really powerful tools, like the ability to create operators from any (non-whitespace) Unicode string, wrap subs and methods, or rewire the language's grammar on the fly. Unsurprisingly, this sort of power can cause a lot of trouble if used with ill-intent. It also can make for wonderfully expressive, clean programs.
- petre 9y ago
  With great power comes great responsibility.
smacktoward 9y ago
> Perl 6, at least seen through the lens of this post, doesn't appear to have fixed the write-only nature of Perl 5 and it's amazing ability to help you create truly obfuscated code first time round. Despite all evidence, the Perl community persists in considering this a feature, not a bug. Which is a big part of why the Perl community is so much smaller these days than it used to be.

mhd 9y ago

The Perl advent calenders have a pretty long tradition and are mostly about tinkering with the language, presenting new modules etc. Often with a christmas/Santa theme. In other words, they're about "hacking"... They also server as a decent health check (e.g. Catalyst seems pretty much dead), but aren't really about advertising.

acomjean 9y ago

I want to like perl6, I really do. The language has some simply great features. I agree with the parent, this seems like a terrible way to get people new into the language. I do a fair amount of perl5 script maintenance, so am familiar with the language. Advents calendars are daily small chunks, an Ideal way to introduce the language but they turned this into a "look how clever" our language is post, which to me is "wow this is hard to read and maintain." Lamentably these examples don't give me hope that Perl6 is going to be any better at being maintained.

dsnuh 9y ago
I still think that if they had just called it something other than Perl, they may have picked up a little more traction.
- jrs95 9y ago
  Perhaps it's not too late for rebranding it?
  - dsnuh 9y ago
    I'm not sure at this point. I used to write quite a bit of Perl 5 and didn't really understand why Perl 6 seemed like it was trying to be everything to everyone and I didn't see what problem domain it was really the obvious choice for picking it over another easier to comprehend language.
  - natch 9y ago
    They are stuck with the community and the culture they have, I think. A different name would not change the nature of what it is.
    - dsnuh 9y ago
      True, but even if they had just called it Parrot or Lerp or Rakudo or really anything but Perl 6, I feel like they could have attracted the kind of new userbase to augment an already thriving community. I didn't follow along with all 594 years of development, it seemed to me like Larry just went nuts with adding every CS novelty. It didn't feel like a language for mere mortals to me anymore.