5 ms·

Okay, but is it a good, useful programming language? In some ways, the long development timeline suggests a slower, more stable way of doing language changes th

Okay, but is it a good, useful programming language? In some ways, the long development timeline suggests a slower, more stable way of doing language changes that appeals a lot to me.

mmaunder 7y ago
Since you had to ask, I'm guessing you don't use it either.
- wtetzner 7y ago
  That doesn't mean there's not a reason to start using it.
- ken 7y ago
  I don't use it yet, either. Why are you trying to make it sound like a new language needs instant adoption, or it's dead for all time? It's not going to expire if it takes a few years. There are two programming languages that I learned in their first 5 years. They both ended up being languages I dislike. A language that takes time to mature and isn't the pop language of the week sounds terrific to me. Good languages stay in use for decades. If I miss the first 5-10 years of a new programming language, either I'll skip its turbulent youth and still be around for most of its life, or it'll turn out to have been a flash-in-the-pan language and I'll have missed nothing.
  - Ultimatt 7y ago
    Well you can take a look fairly easily with this https://perl6intro.com/ https://perl6intro.com/ and this https://glot.io/new/perl6 https://glot.io/new/perl6 If you want to be fancy you can run the JS implementation of the Rakudo compiler in browser targeting JS https://perl6.github.io/6pad/#b66f6f0eb46f296b8a285c45a152f18c https://perl6.github.io/6pad/#b66f6f0eb46f296b8a285c45a152f1...
alabamenhu 7y ago
I think so. I regularly use JS and Java in daily life and used to use a whole host other languages in the past. Perl 6 is actually a joy to code in, as weird as that sounds. It's fairly straightforward to begin using, but the deeper I go the more I see the huge benefit to its long development which was mainly in spec-writing. The two killer features (for my work, at least) have been the grammars (a sort of regex on steroids that is actually readable) and the multiparadigm approach. I mean you can do functional coding with Javascript sort of, but you end up with a lot of extra line noise compared to P6 where it was contempalted from the beginning (and multisubs clear things up even more). All the typical paradigms are integrated fairly seamlessly to let you choose the best tool for the job for whatever block of coding you're working on.
- daotoad 7y ago
  The type system and multiple get rid of so much “if this then do that” code. multi sub eat-pie( Pie slice where *.is-custard ) { ... } multi sub eat-pie( Pie slice where *.is-fruit ) { ... } multi sub eat-pie( Pie slice ) { ... } eat-pie( a-slice-of-pie ); That’s just awesome.

Okay, but is it a good, useful programming language? In some ways, the long development timeline suggests a slower, more stable way of doing language changes that appeals a lot to me.

mmaunder 7y ago

Since you had to ask, I'm guessing you don't use it either.

wtetzner 7y ago
That doesn't mean there's not a reason to start using it.
ken 7y ago
I don't use it yet, either. Why are you trying to make it sound like a new language needs instant adoption, or it's dead for all time? It's not going to expire if it takes a few years. There are two programming languages that I learned in their first 5 years. They both ended up being languages I dislike. A language that takes time to mature and isn't the pop language of the week sounds terrific to me. Good languages stay in use for decades. If I miss the first 5-10 years of a new programming language, either I'll skip its turbulent youth and still be around for most of its life, or it'll turn out to have been a flash-in-the-pan language and I'll have missed nothing.
- Ultimatt 7y ago
  Well you can take a look fairly easily with this https://perl6intro.com/ https://perl6intro.com/ and this https://glot.io/new/perl6 https://glot.io/new/perl6 If you want to be fancy you can run the JS implementation of the Rakudo compiler in browser targeting JS https://perl6.github.io/6pad/#b66f6f0eb46f296b8a285c45a152f18c https://perl6.github.io/6pad/#b66f6f0eb46f296b8a285c45a152f1...

alabamenhu 7y ago

I think so. I regularly use JS and Java in daily life and used to use a whole host other languages in the past. Perl 6 is actually a joy to code in, as weird as that sounds. It's fairly straightforward to begin using, but the deeper I go the more I see the huge benefit to its long development which was mainly in spec-writing. The two killer features (for my work, at least) have been the grammars (a sort of regex on steroids that is actually readable) and the multiparadigm approach. I mean you can do functional coding with Javascript sort of, but you end up with a lot of extra line noise compared to P6 where it was contempalted from the beginning (and multisubs clear things up even more). All the typical paradigms are integrated fairly seamlessly to let you choose the best tool for the job for whatever block of coding you're working on.

daotoad 7y ago
The type system and multiple get rid of so much “if this then do that” code. multi sub eat-pie( Pie slice where *.is-custard ) { ... } multi sub eat-pie( Pie slice where *.is-fruit ) { ... } multi sub eat-pie( Pie slice ) { ... } eat-pie( a-slice-of-pie ); That’s just awesome.