Re: The current state of Perl6

[Anonymous Monk]

I think Rakudo is doing pretty good progress off late, I generally browse through the IRC logs when I get time. And what looks to be clear is that some time between 2011 and 2012 you must see a production ready release.

The problem with Perl 6 is that the spec is released before hand setting very high expectations.A spec complete production ready release is a very overwhelming task to be achieved in a short period of time. You must also distinguish between such a release and the completely standard library being available. I think the spec for that is not yet nailed. So it will take time and the only way is to either help them or wait in patience. It will happen some day.

Meanwhile books are being written and a early adopters release called Rakudo * is planned in some weeks from now. All this is definitely good progress.

[Anonymous Monk]

with Perl 6 is that the spec is released before hand setting very high expectations.A spec complete production ready release is a very overwhelming task to be achieved in a short period of time

So why don't they break it up in two parts "standard Perl6" and "Perl6 for astronauts". Just kidding but you get my ideea...

So it will take time and the only way is to either help them or wait in patience

Sorry I have no intention in helping(I don't know here in my initial post you've read that I intend to help). No I don't think those are the only options. There is also the option of asking from time to time "is it ready?".

[marto]

There is also the option of asking from time to time "is it ready?"

You could, but it would only eat into the contributers time since the FAQ covers this in detail. See Re: How much Perl6 have we got? (take 2).

[Anonymous Monk]

"Are we there yet?"

[Anonymous Monk]

I really don't know the technical complications that go behind building a interpreter (Compiler + VM in case of Perl 6) for a language like Perl 6. When I first read the specification I was overwhelmed. It must be really difficult, else why would they take so much time?

It is a bit frustrating, I agree. For example whenever I've spoken something Perl 6 at my work place the first question is about whether there's a production ready version of it. A negative answer leads to a ridicule that it has taken more than a decade now for this thing to come out.

Understand this from implementers perspective, there are not many people who can hack on things like compilers and interpreters. So they are always running short of people. And since we don't contribute we loose all rights of complaining. Its irritating/frustrating but there is no way out.

[Anonymous Monk]

I've spoken something Perl 6 at my work place the first question is about whether there's a production ready version of it. A negative answer leads to a ridicule that it has taken more than a decade now for this thing to come out

then your co-workers oppinion is the same as mine, I mean if you want to write something in Perl6 and you discover that the compiler has bugs(that you'll most likely be unable to fix) then you'll be very discouraged and will consider that whatever code you write in it is standing on moving grounds. so what I mean is, it's risky to write code in such a language if it's not production-ready. not only risky for work(which is obvious) but even if you're on your own time doing stuff, you're probably wasting it because the compiler isn't yet finished.