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Re: Its time we set the score straight on Perl 5 and Perl 6 and debunk our own self generated FUD.

From:
Juerd
Date:
June 16, 2006 05:34
Subject:
Re: Its time we set the score straight on Perl 5 and Perl 6 and debunk our own self generated FUD.
Message ID:
20060616123412.GQ16755@c4.convolution.nl
demerphq skribis 2006-06-16 11:05 (+0200):
> Lately I've been seeing comments in various forums along the following 
> lines:
>  1. Perl 5 is a dead language
>  2. Perl 5 is going to be replaced by Perl 6 so there is no point in
> using Perl 5.

The weird thing is, though, that this is expressed mostly by people who
don't know much about Perl 6, or Perl 5 for that matter.

> I think these are a serious problem for the language and the
> community. When college teachers are saying that teaching PHP makes
> more sense because Perl is a dead language there is a problem. When
> the people who should know better think that Perl 5 is end-of-lifed
> because of Perl 6 then there is a problem. When the internal politics
> of the Perl community lead to more Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt than a
> focused Microsoft attack campaign there is something wrong.

Agreed, but do you have suggestions?

> We need to make it clear that Perl 5 is not dead, not sleeping, and
> not going anywhere.

This is already done. In my Perl 6 talks, I like to stress that we don't
need Perl 6 right now: it makes our lives much more fun, but for now
Perl 5 serves us well. This is also why it's okay to have Perl 6 take a
few more years. I'm not the only one who says this. Audrey also
encourages people to continue using Perl 5, and this is the general
concensus at Amsterdam.pm and the Perl Workshops I've been to.

So the people who have this wrong impression of Perl 5 are, as far as I
can tell, mostly outside "the community". That makes it very hard to
reach them. I have no idea how this could be done effectively...


Juerd
-- 
http://convolution.nl/maak_juerd_blij.html
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