Re: Should I come back to Perl?

[Corion]

I think your view of Python 2 not having a future is a bit dark. Python 2 is installed on more machines than Python 3 I presume and it's not going anywhere fast. The main thing that Python 2 has going against it is that Guido declared it dead. Python 3 uptake is slow and I'm not sure that it will get better.

Perl 5 is not really being slowly phased out. Perl 6 is just starting, but Perl 5 has a battle-tested environment and a vibrant community and has sustained maintenance of the libraries. For example, CGI has just been spun out of Perl so it can be maintained independent of Perl itself. Of course, /usr/bin/perl is Perl 5 and will be for at least five years to come. This year is the first year supposed to see a major Perl 6 release and we can judge from that onwards as to the uptake of Perl 6.

So, I wouldn't dismiss using Python 2 but I consider Perl 5 a good choice obviously. If you're looking for a concise, fun language to program in, Perl 6 might also be interesting. Currently, there is a major lack of libraries for Perl 6, but support for binding to third party C libraries through FFI is surprisingly good.

[jekyll]

\o,

the major problem here is the word currently. I'm afraid of when this will end.

[Your Mother]

You should not be thinking about Perl6. It's deeply interesting. It's moving forward well. It's not ready. So unless it's to satisfy curiosity or to contribute or to gamble on the future to get ahead of the curve, ignore it. Perl (5) is not going to disappear. Its releases have been like clockwork for years. It's as stable and useful as any language and likely to remain the leader in things like regular expressions and Unicode support. Perl6 will have nearly zero influence on Perl5 until and if it becomes stable, complete, and as fast. This is not going to happen next year or the year after and it may never happen at all.

Perl5 is a fantastic, vibrant language, with a rich ecosphere, actively moving forward and it will be for the foreseeable future. If you like it, jump back in with both feet.

Update: did not realize I'd klept "vibrant" from Corion. :P Regarding Python: the 2/3 split being installed and competing with shoddy include/discovery code on boxes in install scripts is what led me to wonder how anyone likes it at all. It's been nothing but a PITA to me and from an accidental user's perspective it seems like a hot mess full of bad practices and assumptions. Perl, Ruby, and Node.js toolchains have all been kinder and saner for me.

[jekyll]

\o,

well, Node.js ... I never liked server-side JavaScript. The thing that annoys me most with Python (any version) are the missing brackets. :-)

I do like Perl 5, always have, probably always will. I've just been out of the game for quite a while now. While the languae itself doesn't seem to have evolved much (although I still need to dig through the recent feature additions), Perl6 was not a subject when I last left Perl.

So, basically, Perl6 is "Perl 5+ in a VM"? (VMs are awful IMO.)