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I think that going with Perl 7 would be good for the Perl community as a whole. The Perl 6 crew has had over a decade to get something useful put together. Whi
by PommeDeTerre 14y ago
I think that going with Perl 7 would be good for the Perl community as a whole.
The Perl 6 crew has had over a decade to get something useful put together. While Rakudo is mildly interesting, it isn't practical in the same sense that Perl 5 is. Given Perl 6's lack of traction, I think it's reasonable to consider it a dead effort at this point.
Perl 7, on the other hand, would be very usable right away. It would immediately reflect the changes that we've seen with modern Perl, but without the stigma associated with Perl 6.
At the very least, it would show that the Perl community is again moving in the right directly, with the emphasis on a language that is usable today, rather than on one that has floundered for many years now.
- CJefferson 14y agoI strongly agree. I don't follow Perl, but I have long thought "I'll have a look when Perl 6 gets stable, not a lit off point looking at Perl 5, it's old and going to disappear soon anyway." At this point, I suspect the gap which would be filled by Perl for me is already filled by python. But if I had a firm feeling that Perl 5/7 was not going to be eclipsed by Perl 6, I would be tempted to give it a try, mainly because I have found python is not a good replacement for grep/awk/find/xargs, and I suspect Perl might fit that niche better. What is the best way to learn "modern Perl"? Or am I better off learning "old Perl"?
- chromatic 14y agoWhat is the best way to learn "modern Perl"? I wrote a book called Modern Perl. It's freely available in electronic formats: http://onyxneon.com/books/modern_perl http://onyxneon.com/books/modern_perl
- cschep 14y agoThis is the stuff that keeps me coming back to Hacker News.
- Moto7451 14y agoThis book (and reading CPAN documentation) is how I learned Perl. Its a fantastic guide to getting started with the language and some things you will run into no matter what (Moose for example).
- zbruhnke 14y agoits an awesome book, just bought it from amazon like two weeks ago, its amazing how simple it makes it to pick up Perl quickly
- Surio 14y agoGoing through the online version now. Very pragmatic writing style and wastes no time in getting to the point (Kernigan/Ritchie influence is seen). Very nice. Thank you for sharing it with one and all.
- jacques_chester 14y ago> I have long thought "I'll have a look when Perl 6 gets stable, not a lit off point looking at Perl 5, it's old and going to disappear soon anyway." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osborne_effect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osborne_effect