On 01/12/2010 07:37, Bill Ward wrote:
I think Perl 6 may be the death of Perl.
I think it's Perl's last hope. I think minds and time spent on slow Perl 6 ish things like Moose for Perl 5 will be the death of Perl.
It's already at least five years too late to make any real impact as a new version of Perl. Maybe if it is given a different name and not presented as being a new version of Perl, but instead a whole new language that is an outgrowth of the Perl community (the way Ruby is) then it might have a shot.
I only ever heard Perl programmers talking about Ruby. Overall I wouldn't say it's uptake is good at all.
But really, it boils down to marketing. Perl has no marketing behind it, and in fact most of the people in the Perl community seem to view marketing as beneath them.
Here there are two very, very valid points. Some attitudes of key community members drastically affect the way Perl is promoted and new members are treated. Perl needs a lot, lot more marketing; I only see this coming through Perl 6. No matter what's added to Perl 5, it's still the old language with awkward objects or at best, very slow trying to be Perl 6 style objects.
I think much of what Octavian said is right on the button. Lyle
