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Re: Announcing Perl 7
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From:
Dan Book
Date:
June 28, 2020 19:11
Subject:
Re: Announcing Perl 7
Message ID:
CABMkAVVDb+Uxwu02JoXwJv4zKK5_95zfyCVjE0o-Fkd2ncStkA@mail.gmail.com
On Sun, Jun 28, 2020 at 3:04 PM Wesley Schwengle via perl5-porters <
perl5-porters@perl.org> wrote:
> Major version bumps make it possible to break backward compatibility and
> thus allowing new things in favor of the old. Perl 5 is still going to be
> supported for a lot of years. For all the code that is out there and those
> who wants to rely on Perl 5, they can use that specific version. I'm
> looking forward to be able to use the new shiny syntax stuff that isn't
> available in older versions of Perl 5. Perl 7 allows forward progression by
> ditching the mistakes of the past. It allows me as a user to pick a version
> of Perl that suits my needs. Need Perl 5 for that, great let's use p5. Want
> to write more modern Perl, p7 or up. I love it. And for me a big reason why
> there are major versions.
>
> Most of the comments in this thread talk about backward compatibility with
> p5. I think this viewpoint is exactly what is addressed in the build up to
> the announcement. Newer stuff cannot be implemented because of the old
> stuff. We need to make a break somewhere. We are in this current position
> because the progression of Perl 5 has been hindered by the development of
> Perl 6/Raku (please don't see this as a bash against Perl6/Raku). IMHO it
> just created a situation where the let's not break older code in p5 became
> some sort of holy bible. Which is good, because that became the goal of p5,
> as it was in maintenance mode. Now with p7 we can change that goal.
> Implement new and shiny things, break with the old.
>
> When I fire up the latest and greatest Perl I want to use all the (new)
> features by default and not having to enable them via `use feature`. It
> should become the default. Perl 7 allows that. I love the idea that `use
> feature` now becomes similar to `use experimental` (maybe not fully, but
> from a high level it seems this way).
>
This is a false choice. We can and have added and removed features in each
release of Perl. Changing the defaults does not affect that ability, nor
has any streamlining of feature removal been proposed as of yet, nor
explanation of how such a change in policy would necessitate changing
defaults.
A new major version indeed has all of the benefits you are extolling, I
think it's a wonderful opportunity and long overdue. Changing the defaults
doesn't add anything to this benefit and adds a lot of problems to work
around, like your whole list of considerations.
-Dan
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