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I almost missed the links in that blog post to the other discussions. They are http://blogs.perl.org/users/alberto_simoes/2011/06/perl-perl-5-perl-6-and-names.

by sciurus 15y ago

I almost missed the links in that blog post to the other discussions. They are http://blogs.perl.org/users/alberto_simoes/2011/06/perl-perl-5-perl-6-and-names.html http://blogs.perl.org/users/alberto_simoes/2011/06/perl-perl... http://www.modernperlbooks.com/mt/2011/06/perl-perl-5-perl-6-and-names.html http://www.modernperlbooks.com/mt/2011/06/perl-perl-5-perl-6... http://blogs.perl.org/users/mithaldu/2011/06/why-are-people-asking-for-a-perl-name-change-again.html http://blogs.perl.org/users/mithaldu/2011/06/why-are-people-... http://jjnapiorkowski.typepad.com/modern-perl/2011/06/perl-5-perl-6-perl-x.html http://jjnapiorkowski.typepad.com/modern-perl/2011/06/perl-5...

agentultra 15y ago
I think John's post on the modern perl blog is the most rational dissection of this "problem" that is plaguing the perl community. Few people outside the perl community see "Perl 5" and "Perl 6". For most people referring to the language they simply call it "Perl." For marketing to developers specifically, I think the biggest hurdle isn't the name but the stigma attached to the language. Most developers I talk to outside of the perl community still see perl as a "write only language" that consists purely of "line noise." They don't specifically say whether they are talking about Perl 5 or Perl 6. To them there is no distinction.
- CurrentB 15y ago
  I agree. Nobody want's to invest time into learning something called "Perl 5" when there's something already out there called "Perl 6". Yes, some research into it will reveal that they are now on two separate dev paths, but there is still some mental stigma associated with investing time in learning an "old version" of something. And learning the "newer version" quickly reveals that it is not widely used/supported yet. They are basically two separate languages and should be treated as such. These days the arena Perl competes in is extremely competitive, and these seemingly small issues will continue to be disastrous for Perl.
  - zcid 15y ago
    I can attest to this. This was my first insight into the Perl 5/6 issue. Until now, I always assumed it was along the lines of Python 2.x and Python 3.

by sciurus 15y ago

agentultra 15y ago

I think John's post on the modern perl blog is the most rational dissection of this "problem" that is plaguing the perl community. Few people outside the perl community see "Perl 5" and "Perl 6". For most people referring to the language they simply call it "Perl." For marketing to developers specifically, I think the biggest hurdle isn't the name but the stigma attached to the language. Most developers I talk to outside of the perl community still see perl as a "write only language" that consists purely of "line noise." They don't specifically say whether they are talking about Perl 5 or Perl 6. To them there is no distinction.

CurrentB 15y ago
I agree. Nobody want's to invest time into learning something called "Perl 5" when there's something already out there called "Perl 6". Yes, some research into it will reveal that they are now on two separate dev paths, but there is still some mental stigma associated with investing time in learning an "old version" of something. And learning the "newer version" quickly reveals that it is not widely used/supported yet. They are basically two separate languages and should be treated as such. These days the arena Perl competes in is extremely competitive, and these seemingly small issues will continue to be disastrous for Perl.
- zcid 15y ago
  I can attest to this. This was my first insight into the Perl 5/6 issue. Until now, I always assumed it was along the lines of Python 2.x and Python 3.