3 ms·

perl 6/raku was a redesign. as far as i remember, upgradeability from perl 5 without code changes was never the goal.

by em-bee 1y ago

SoftTalker 1y ago
Isn't that the definition of a breaking change?
- em-bee 1y ago
  yeah, in the same sense that D is a breaking change for C, or wayland for X11. the point is that as far as i know it was never intended that existing perl 5 code would be rewritten. unlike the python 2 to 3 change where the intention was that people would convert using 2to3 and later using compatibility modules that allowed writing code that works with both. python 2 development stopped after 12 years, much later than they expected.
- 0xbadcafebee 1y ago
  If Ford makes a 4-door passenger car, and then comes out with a 2-door sports car, and keeps producing both cars, that's not a breaking change. It's just a new car. Perl 5 is still supported, Perl 6 (Raku) continues independently.
aaronbaugher 1y ago
It's unfortunate that that wasn't clear to people who weren't closely involved with Perl at the time. So many people got the impression that Perl 5 was outdated as soon as 6 was in development, so they thought they had to move on from it. It's too bad Raku didn't have a different name from the start.
- petdance 1y ago
  > It's too bad Raku didn't have a different name from the start. We thought that it would take a year or two, not decades. Also, the intent was to have a Perl 5 compatibility mode.
  - aaronbaugher 1y ago
    Looks like the last time I tried out Perl 6 was almost 10 years ago. Even wrote a few blog posts about it before giving up on it again. Might be time to take another look.
  - lizmat 1y ago
    There is a Perl 5 compatibility mode: it's called Inline::Perl5. Maybe not the one that was originally planned. But that was only a real possibility if Perl 5 would be able to get rid of its XS addiction. Ask yourself: how many of the up river Perl modules are Perl only?
- oofbey 1y ago
  Agreed. Probably why they renamed it. I think everybody probably wishes they'd taken a new name from the start.

perl 6/raku was a redesign. as far as i remember, upgradeability from perl 5 without code changes was never the goal.

by em-bee 1y ago

perl 6/raku was a redesign. as far as i remember, upgradeability from perl 5 without code changes was never the goal.

SoftTalker 1y ago

Isn't that the definition of a breaking change?

em-bee 1y ago
yeah, in the same sense that D is a breaking change for C, or wayland for X11. the point is that as far as i know it was never intended that existing perl 5 code would be rewritten. unlike the python 2 to 3 change where the intention was that people would convert using 2to3 and later using compatibility modules that allowed writing code that works with both. python 2 development stopped after 12 years, much later than they expected.
0xbadcafebee 1y ago
If Ford makes a 4-door passenger car, and then comes out with a 2-door sports car, and keeps producing both cars, that's not a breaking change. It's just a new car. Perl 5 is still supported, Perl 6 (Raku) continues independently.

aaronbaugher 1y ago

It's unfortunate that that wasn't clear to people who weren't closely involved with Perl at the time. So many people got the impression that Perl 5 was outdated as soon as 6 was in development, so they thought they had to move on from it. It's too bad Raku didn't have a different name from the start.

petdance 1y ago
> It's too bad Raku didn't have a different name from the start. We thought that it would take a year or two, not decades. Also, the intent was to have a Perl 5 compatibility mode.
- aaronbaugher 1y ago
  Looks like the last time I tried out Perl 6 was almost 10 years ago. Even wrote a few blog posts about it before giving up on it again. Might be time to take another look.
- lizmat 1y ago
  There is a Perl 5 compatibility mode: it's called Inline::Perl5. Maybe not the one that was originally planned. But that was only a real possibility if Perl 5 would be able to get rid of its XS addiction. Ask yourself: how many of the up river Perl modules are Perl only?
oofbey 1y ago
Agreed. Probably why they renamed it. I think everybody probably wishes they'd taken a new name from the start.