"5" is a version number of Perl. To run it, $/usr/bin/perl "6" is part of the name of Perl6. To run it, $/usr/bin/perl6.
With the production version of Perl incremented by 2 every year, it's still about 35 years before the version gets to an inconvenient 3 digits. (Will there really be enough worth changing that many times, and how many of us will still be around to care?) Energy expended in nominal disputes would be better spent producing killer apps in some fashionable area (AI, ML, even a web framework), so that people don't care what the language is called, they just want to use it. Ruby applications might be a good place to start, since that community seems to have fractured, and Perl6 has a lot in common with Ruby. On 8/12/19, Richard Hainsworth <rnhainswo...@gmail.com> wrote: > <snip> >> >> The decision on perl 5 vs perl 6 naming is more revolutionary but it >> IS hurting >> Perl. I love Perl but it has an image problem. > True. Would a name change now have much effect? >> If Perl didn't have an image problem, >> Python never would have become so popular. > Mmmm. ???? That is a very strong assertion and diminishes Python and its > developers. It's the sort of statement that can't easily be tested. More > a belief. >> Perl used to be THE scripting >> language. > True. And C was THE programming language. Life moves on. And in circles. > Fashions come and go, and what was fashionable can again be so. >> It doesn't matter that it is still around and still continuing to be >> developed. >> What matters is people's PERCEPTIONS of Perl (dead, dieing, >> irrelevant, etc). >> >> Too little was done for too long about Perl's image. It may be too >> late to bring it >> back into the forefront as it used to be. > > Being excited about a language and using it for cool things - and > broadcasting to the world that its cool will do more to change > perceptions that Perl is cool, than a name change to Camilea. > > As you said: Perceptions are the most important thing. >
