What people don't realize is that Perl means something. (And it doesn't mean specifically Perl 5.) I'd wager nobody advocating silly name changes (for either 5

What people don't realize is that Perl means something. (And it doesn't mean specifically Perl 5.) I'd wager nobody advocating silly name changes (for either 5 or 6) had been writing Perl 10 years ago. In short: it's a marketing lie, and a poor one at that. For the sake of (spiteful) example I submit Perl 4 should be now known as Perl, and Perl 5 should deal with succession syndrome. Oh but Perl 6 is disruptive and confusing because it's so different you might complain, adding that 5 wasn't so different from 4. You wouldn't have dealt with the frustratingly subtle differences between Perl 4 and Perl 5 then. Or reams of Perl 5 documentation written as Perl 4 code with errata.