http://www.perlmonks.org?node_id=614842

bronto has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Dearest Monks

Not sure this node is better suited for SOPW or for a meditation (or anything else?), anyway here it goes. Feel free to edit it and move it to the appropriate place

Nearly two years ago I posted a node asking you and myself: How much Perl6 have we got?

Now, for the first time, I see someone compromising himself and saying that Perl 6 will soon be here.

So maybe it's time to ask you and myself the same question: how much Perl6 have we got? Is there finally a timeline that tells us when approximately Perl6 will be officially out? It's some time that I am buried alive in job tasks that don't require perl that much, so I am not really up-to-the-date on perl things...

Thanks in advance for your wisdom

Ciao!
--bronto


In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is.

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: How much Perl6 have we got? (take 2)
by polettix (Vicar) on May 11, 2007 at 08:54 UTC
    As seen on #perl6:
    apr 19 01:22:02 <polettix> <disclaimer>I'm not asking for dates!</disclaimer> what perce +ntage of Perl 6 specs definition do you think we (well... you) are at? apr 19 01:22:56 <TimToady> we're well past the first 80% and well into the second 80%. +:) apr 19 01:23:52 <polettix> nice answer, and I suspect it also represents the reality qui +te well :) apr 19 01:23:56 <TimToady> in other words, most of the important stuff is done, and much + of what remains is a protracted negotiation between the current desig +n and the implementors apr 19 01:24:26 <TimToady> with assorted input from educators and users apr 19 01:25:29 <TimToady> plus a gentle undercurrent of "keep everything else the same +as Perl 5"
    I hope I'm not being rude "publishing" these log lines without explicit permission (but I already did in the past:)

    Flavio
    perl -ple'$_=reverse' <<<ti.xittelop@oivalf

    Don't fool yourself.
Re: How much Perl6 have we got? (take 2)
by marto (Cardinal) on May 11, 2007 at 08:20 UTC
    "Is there finally a timeline that tells us when approximately Perl6 will be officially out?"

    From the FAQ:

    Is there a release date set for perl 6.0 ?

    In regards to Perl 6, the answer on release dates is really "when it's ready". There is no major commercial sponsor for the language development so the majority of the work is driven by volunteers and donations from the Perl Foundation (http://www.perlfoundation.org/).

    That said, there is much progress being made in the last year, including the Pugs project which allows you to start testing experimenting with some perl 6 features .. now!

    For more information on the latest re: perl 6, check out:

    http://planetsix.perl.org/
    http://dev.perl.org/perl6/
    http://www.pugscode.org/
    http://www.parrotcode.org/
    You may also wish to have a look at some of the Perl6::* modules. which experiment with adding new language features to perl5. See the current list on CPAN (http://search.cpan.org/search?query=Perl6&mode=module).

    If you really want to see Perl 6 done faster, the best answer is ... get involved! Sign up for the mailing lists and consider contributing some tests, documentation, or code to the Parrot or Pugs projects depending on your level of experience (or even donate real dollars to the Perl Foundation ;)

    Update: Fixed formatting.

    Martin
Re: How much Perl6 have we got? (take 2)
by duff (Parson) on May 11, 2007 at 13:43 UTC

    Hmm. How exactly am I "compromising myself"? Some would say that's a bold statement; others would say I'm just crazy; some would call it "faith" even. I don't see the compromise.

    Anyway, asking "how much Perl 6 have we got?" is a little like asking a painter how finished is his painting. Some artists will have what looks like a finished work to everybody, but from inside the artist's head it looks completely wrong and decidely unfinished. As an artist, the proximity to completion is not something that you can readily quantify.

    Perl 6 will get here when it gets here. How much have we got? We've got most of the spec. We've got several implementations. At least one of those implementations puts us nigh on to full bootstrapping. Not quite there yet, but close. Close enough that I'd say, "Perl 6 will soon be here" :-)

      First things first: thanks for the article.

      Hmm. How exactly am I "compromising myself"?

      Eh, that's my dictionary's fault: I asked for "sblianciarsi" and I got back " fig. to commit oneself, to compromise oneself.". And since "commit" looked weird to me, I took the second choice.

      Just to explain, a literal translation of "sbilanciarsi" in italian is "to lose one’s balance". That's used in a figurative way to mean that when you are asked to tell an estimation for something, and the estimation is difficult, you face the risk of saying an estimation anyway. That was the sense in which I used "to compromise oneself". If I somehow offended you, I apologize and I didn't mean to.

      Regarding the remainder of your comment, if you say "Perl 6 will soon be here" you make me believe that you have an idea of when it is released. I am a bit too down-to-earth to make sense of a phrase that contains both the sentence "Perl 6 will get here when it gets here" and "Perl 6 will soon be here". If I think at myself, it would be like I don't know at all where a town is and say "I don't know where it is, but I'll get there soon"...

      Ciao!
      --bronto


      In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is.

        Hmmm ... I think the closest english word may be prognosticate. I've never really heard or used it for software estimation (I mostly hear it for sports wagering) but it sure fits.

        So duff, would you be happy to call yourself a perl6 prognosticator?

        -derby