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Postings from May 2001
Perl, the new generation
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From:
Peter Scott
Date:
May 10, 2001 09:19
Subject:
Perl, the new generation
Message ID:
4.3.2.7.2.20010510090453.00bb5f00@psdt.com
This is a long shot, but here goes.
I was thinking about Perl 6 this morning while jogging (blithely ignoring
the forest scenery). It occurred to me that what appears to be emerging as
the new language embodies bigger changes than I ever anticipated - which is
great, software should improve with time. And so I found myself wondering
whether the title does it justice. Perl 6 is looking to me almost like an
entirely new language. The change from Perl 5 to Perl 6 is much, much
larger than the change from Perl 4 to Perl 5 (virtually all Perl 4 code ran
unmodified under Perl 5).
So, I wonder aloud, do we want to signify that degree of change with a more
dramatic change in the name? Still Perl, but maybe Perl 7, Perl 10, Perl
2001, Perl NG, Perl* - heck, I don't know, I'm just trying to get the
creative juices flowing. I do believe that the tremendous effort that is
going into Perl 6 deserves more attention than I think it will get with
that title.
At some point, the Perl 6 cognomen will have attracted enough inertia that
we couldn't reasonably change it even if we wanted to. Maybe that time has
already come. Maybe not. Can't hurt to raise the question.
--
Peter Scott
Pacific Systems Design Technologies
http://www.perldebugged.com
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Perl, the new generation
by Peter Scott