Since you're interested in the management of the Perl 6 project, I'll let you in on some of it. Let's start with a step back into a bit of history:
We started off with an intense RFC process. This produced many good ideas, not-so-good ideas, and ideas with potential but desperately needing polish. If you'd like a recap, you might try MJD's article on the subject (http://www.perl.com/lpt/a/2000/11/perl6rfc.html). One of the major things that was lacking from the RFC process was focus. The advantage of community contribution is that it brings out good ideas from many different perspectives. The disadvantage is that the ideas form no coherent whole. Larry was the obvious choice to provide the needed focus. The second phase (the one we're in now), is for Larry to take the RFC's and produce a coherent design. The original expectation was that this would take 2 weeks. Looking back, that seems ludicrous. We now know what an intense amount of work is involved in each feature. Hey, we live and learn. :) Even though this review process is taking longer than expected, this is the right way to proceed. Just look at the first 5 Apocalypses. Larry has taken us in directions that no one expected and the results are worth getting excited about. But, here's the deal. When you place the weight of producing a coherent design on one person's shoulders, you're limited by the amount of work one person can do. So what we don't need right now is another slew of RFC's (or their equivalent) for Larry to review. That isn't to say that we can't or won't discuss issues that come up from earlier Apocalypses. We will and we should. But that isn't the focus. It can't be. If we spend all our time fleshing out the details of earlier Apocalypses, we'll never finish. Hmmm... let me rephrase that. If we spend all Larry's time fleshing out the details of earlier Apocalypses, Larry will never finish. This is in no way intended to dampen your enthusiasm. It is welcomed. But please keep it in perspective. The project is proceeding in a much more orderly fashion than you might think if p6-lang is your only exposure. Apocalypse 6 will be coming out soon, though slightly delayed by the recent furor over operator shifts. If you really want to be involved where the rubber meets the road -- where the "abstract" design gets tested and every last detail must be fleshed out -- you might contribute to Parrot. It has a good many of the features of the first 5 Apocalypses implemented already. Allison
