Now, some of you may have noticed that I've suddenly started writing one or
two little RFCs. Yes, this is really me, the same guy who was convinced that
Perl 6 was an exercise in how quick we could all go to hell in a handbasket.
I admit it. I was wrong.
What's caused this dramatic change of mind? Well, the YAPC::Europe played a
huge part. Actually meeting the people doing the work on it and realising that
not everyone has drunk of the Java Fountain of Youth or has been spending far
too much time with dangerous snakes. That actually, there's a bunch of people
out there who understand what Perl's about and know how it should proceed. And
that *they're not the guys making the noise*.
The reason it looked like there was a clamour of craziness (I believe Alan's
already ranted about what happens when people who just *aren't* language
designers believe that they ought to be.) was because it was the crazy people
doing the clamouring.
But in any case, even if I do think there's a load of Koolaid drinkers out
there, the best thing I can do is get some suggestions in that I think are
sensible; taking away my voice and my say in what happens seems a load like
cutting off my nose to spite my face. And if Sturgeon's Law applies, the best
thing to do is to work on increasing the other 10%.
Which is what I'm working on. You'll all be extremely pleased to know, I'm
sure, that I have notes here for another 12 RFCs. After that, I have to start
thinking.
--
"If you want to travel around the world and be invited to speak at a lot
of different places, just write a Unix operating system."
(By Linus Torvalds)
