[...]
Should it really? I mean: is the time right for that now?
Let's ask the other way round: Is this the time for only one
implementation? And who decides that it's the one based on parrot?
What happens if parrot turns out to be a dead end? (very unlikely, but
possible).
Let's give some $$$ to say 3 implementations, see what they come up in a
month. Lets mupltiply their 1/CPU-time with #of tests passed :), and the
winner gets the rest of the money.
It's really hard to define what the community wants: noone can speak on
behalf of the whole community (and the community has many ideas about
things :)) However, and strongly IMHO, what most Perl users want is very
simple: to have a not-too-slow Perl6 implementation that runs most of
the current Perl6 specification - without too much bugs.
I also think that many perl people also want a good Perl 6 specification.
I agree.
On the other hand, I would be very happy if current implementations
could pass 25% of the current specification.
And different implementations help to explore different part of the specs.
That also helps rakudo, if the specs are well covered by other
implementations and are therfore much stable and really implementable.
How about sponsoring some implementations, but give "special attention"
to the most promising one?
If you argue that most people want an implemenation that covers large
parts of the specs, the most logical step would be to boost pugs
development. It's the most advanced implementation by far.
And I do believe that it can be sped up if you really want that.
I don't know Haskell and the structure of Pugs so I cannot comment on
that - however, I have some doubts. And speed *is* important: I don't
think we can expect people to start using Perl6 if it runs even 2x
slower than Perl5. If Pugs was really up-to-date (I mean: feature
complete), only slow, I would probably use it to learn Perl6, because
Perl6 is just lovely. I would not build something on it, though.
So where's that pro parrot bias coming from?
IMHO people like the idea of Parrot. It just.. makes sense. It's been
around for quite a while. There are releases every month or so. There is
a mod_parrot. These things.
Surely it is very nice to have many implementations (we have seen how
much helpful the Pugs project was to help Perl6, for example), but could
that happen (or: be sponsored) *after* we have *one* that is fairly
complete?? After some time, one imlementations will emerge and become
*the* implementations anyway.
Oh will it? Just like we have one C implementation? Or one Forth
implementation? Or one Lisp implementation?
Can we add PHP and Perl5 to the list? ;)
What I would like to add is that IMHO this time implementators should be
sponsored. That is: those who hack and those who answer their questions
on how to hack. :)
Aye.
And perhaps the ones who write the specs, if they want/need it.
I meant that, too.
I also think that different Perl groups all around the world could be
responsive. Let's contact the gazillion perl lists and say: "...if you
like Perl, please give $10 to the \"Let's have Perl6 now!\" foundation!"
I would, and I will personally send anyone to /dev/null who would not! :)
I don't know if that's a good idea - sadly many of them have the
perception that Perl 6 is vapour ware.
I guess I have more trust in people than you do. :)
I know that the company I work for would never give a dime to any
foundations, but I would. And I *own* that company :) That's because a
company is always a business, but a person can be an enthusiast.
Anyway: I don't know anything about fundraising, so maybe I shouldn't
say a thing... I just say it might worth a try. People would help to
convince other people. Once again: I would.
My idea would be to ask big companies that use perl (for example amazon)
if they would sponsor some of the development.
Are there other organisations that routinely sponsor open source software?
Can't we just go to Google and say we will use Yahoo if they don't give
us some money? :) And if they don't, we tell everyone! ;)
How about just looking at the sponsor logo-s on the webpages of
different OS conferences? There should be plenty, and could give some
ideas. (But there really should be something you can *show* to them. I
mean at least *one* webpage on Perl6 which is not outdated :) ) YAPC
organizers should have some ideas, too.
- Fagzal
