At 18:36 -0500 2003.03.14, Andrew Pimlott wrote: >On Fri, Mar 14, 2003 at 06:00:59PM -0500, Tolkin, Steve wrote: >> I think I am in the same camp as Chris Nandor and John Tobey. >> They, and I, have just given up on Perl 6. > >I would say don't give up. Unless you need it within the next >couple years, in which case, ok, give up. But if you're thinking >long term, have some faith in Larry, Damian, and the other guys who >are smart, creative, and apparently working together really well >together (unusual in Perl's history!).
I would agree in that I would not say I have given up; I have merely stopped caring. I reserve the right to care again some day, but I lack optimism. And since I hate being pessimistic, rather than optimistic, I choose to note care, instead. :) Also, despite my distaste for much of what is being said about what Perl 6 will be, I do not wish to discourage anyone else, including and especially the people designing it, and those who wish to help them. I only say I have distaste for it to encourage those who feel similarly, to let them know it is OK to not like it. But really, Elaine is right IMO: dislike it if you wish -- Larry is certainly mature and smart enough to know that people have preferences and that all the Perl users won't like Perl 6 by default! -- but don't gripe. At the very least, realize that if you love Perl 5, it isn't going away. It might lose Larry and Damian, but honestly, Larry has not not done a lot for the design or maintenance of the Perl 5 language in years, and Damian -- while making cool stuff -- contributed more in his ideas than in any other way, and those ideas will still be coming, I guarantee, only to be implemented in Perl 5 for those who want it. That is to say, I am influenced more by Damian's ideas than I use his actual code. Yes, Perl 5 has and will lose people. But it also has a lot of good people that it won't likely lose, and it will probably gain more "key" people as others step up to the plate. I am not trying to dismiss all the other "key" people like Larry and Damian have done, but just trying to keep things in perspective. My only real concern is that when Perl 6 comes out, the community will be fractured, and we -- you, me, Larry, Damian -- will need to work to minimize the damage, for the benefit of Perl 5 and Perl 6 users. We will need to deal with CPAN/PAUSE/RT/search, we will need to deal with IRC and PerlMonks and use Perl; we will need to deal with Usenet; we will need to deal with TPJ and TPR and YAPC and TPC and Perl Mongers. I see the users of both -- and make no mistake, Perl 5 will retain a large user base for a long time, composed of people who have no intention of using Perl 6 -- only being harmed by significant fracturing of the "Perl community." But, that is some time off, so I won't dwell on it; I just like to point this problem out so people can think about it a bit now, to try to lessen the problem later. Prophecy is not meant to make people panic, but to help them see the future signs that they might respond more appropriately, with a greater sense of understanding, when the time comes. ;-) -- Chris Nandor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://pudge.net/ Open Source Development Network [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://osdn.com/ _______________________________________________ Boston-pm mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/boston-pm
