Nathan Wiger wrote:
> the more compatible
> with Perl5 Perl6 is, the more likely it is to be accepted.
I don't believe that's necessarily true.
If Perl6 proves to be a significantly better Perl than Perl5,
people will adopt it, especially if they're inclined toward
the Perl philosophy anyway. (And at first, those are the only
people we have to convince.) To this end, sacrificing the
Virgin of Perlish Power to the God of Backward Compatibility
would be unwise in the extreme.
Put simply, I'd take Conway's Perl6 Power Extension Pack
over the ability to run my existing programs (which work
just fine under my (still functioning) perl5, thanks) under
perl6 any day.
Put abstractly, if I perceive Perl6 as a new-and-improved,
yet vaguely incompatible, upgrade to Perl5, I am much less
inclined to adopt it that if I perceive it as a bold
stride above and away from Perl5.
--
John Porter
