Re^2: What is Perl6?

[punkish]

I've heard about a programming language called 'C'. It's supposed to be very fast. Yet, if I want to install C, I'm directed the "Gnu Compiler Collection". Or to "clang", based on LLVM, a low-level virtual machine. Or icc, tcc, ... . Whoa! What happened here?

You are absolutely correct. It is very confusing to most people. To those who install C, it perhaps makes sense, but I've never had to install C. It always comes on my computer.

The problem is -- I do have to install Perl. Perl is a fairly routine install. So, when I install "Perl," I install Perl. The world of Perl 5 has made me expect that the language, its specs, its compiler, its VM, its grammar, its whatever... they are all Perl. This makes it easy for me to understand, and it makes communication easy to others. There are times when I have to install Perl (or ask for Perl to be installed) on a server owned by someone else. I tell them to please install Perl, and they do so at /usr/local/bin. Well, now it is a lot more confusing.

I guess, the reality is that a developer at one level is a user at another (and vice versa). I don't develop Perl, but I use Perl to develop with it. Others use the programs that I write with Perl. So, we have all these different "levels" of users. Simpler naming leads to simpler communication. Is all I am saying.

So you don't know any reasons, yet assume the worst in others. How very encouraging

Not at all. Apologies if that came out so. It was more of a tongue-in-cheek statement, but it was based in something that seemed needlessly complicated.

Perl 6 is a language. Just not a compiler. And why ever not? What's wrong with C, C++, Java, Python, Pascal, Haskell and all the other languages that have a specification, and multiple compilers?

Perhaps they do. I only know of the Perl 5 world, and I don't have this confusion in the Perl 5 world. That is where I am coming from.