why Perl5 will never die

[zentara]

When did all the talk of Perl5 dying out begin? It must have been 15 years ago when Python arrived on the scene. Yet.... here we are, still the place of last resort where programmers come because their multi-gigabyte Microsoft Programming Pack didn't have a ready made simple solution. Perl5, was, and still is, the best swiss army knife of the programming world. What prompted me to write this, is an article in the Perl Newsletter on how simple Perl makes it to connect to UPS and get tracking information. Not only does he solve the socket connection, he color codes the output for a better man-machine interface. terminal colors to convey information. Its articles like this, and further, that Perl5 has the ability to do that, is the reason Perl5 will never die! :-)

[zentara]

.... Here we are 18 years later...

That being exactly my point. Here is to the next 18 years of being dead :-)

[roho]

I agree. It is premature to start shopping for a cemetery plot for Perl 5. I was hooked on Perl when I saw the quote that said, "Perl will let you get your work done before you get fired". For me, the overriding issue with Perl 6 is whether it will run current programs without modification (I've heard talk of a Perl-5-to-Perl-6 translator, and that may mitigate the transition somewhat). I realize that Perl 6 has new features that require breaking backward compatibility, but having existing programs fail to run on Perl 6 is a non-starter.

[Arunbear]

I also heard talk of a Perl-5-to-Perl-6 translator, but that was in the early 2000's and I've not heard it mentioned in recent years.

[LanX]

The most recent approach is IIRC a bridge, such that P6 code can use P5 modules running on a P5 engine.

Heard good things about it.

Never tried it out though.

[Anonymous Monk]

When did all the talk of Perl5 dying out begin?

State of the Onion 2000
Oct 24, 2000 by Larry Wall
www.perl.com/pub/2000/10/23/soto2000.html/

"We do expect the rate of new development in Perl 5 to taper off, of course, and that can be viewed as a feature..."

:-(

"It is our belief that if Perl culture is designed right, Perl will be able to evolve into the language we need 20 years from now. It’s also our belief that only a radical rethinking of both the Perl language and its implementation can energize the community in the long run. In the long run means 10 and 20 years down the road. Finally, it is our belief that Perl 5 will be better supported than it would be if we merely tried to guard what we already have. The best defense is a good offense."

:-)

Here we are 18 years later...

:-|

[zentara]

I have to comment, that in watching the daily notes, this node has a very large "reaped nodes" following. Many useful comments are reaped, there seems to be something wrong with the way reaping is done.

[LanX]

you are misreading, they are follow ups to an answers to a reaped node.

Re°: Reaped: not Reaped: Re°:

But I agree that we should probably fix the titles to avoid misunderstandings.

On a PMD level: The "reaped" attribute should probably not be part of the title.

[BrowserUk]

Perl5 isn't yet dead. Just in a deliberately induced coma whilst the relatives argue about how long is decent for them to maintain life support.

Recovery from a minimally conscious state is possible; but very rare.

[zentara]

I see Perl5 staying alive a longtime as an programming art form. I think many programmers just enjoy thinking in terms of "how would I use Perl5 to model this". There is something seductive about the way a Perl5 trained mind approaches a problem. There will probably be podcasts in 20 years, where the 1-liner, and many other programs, are appreciated as artful thinking.