From: Steffen Schwigon [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Thomas Wittek <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > Maybe we should steal the ruby "principle of least surprise" here, > > which I find a very good principle. > > I'm quite confident that Larry already stole all good principles he > could find.
Me too. However many ongoing discussions on #perl6 and in perl.perl6.language involve how to better reconcile such principles. (Thanks especially to Pubs, which has stimulated a great many refinements and improvements in the Perl 6 language, and continues to do so.) So I think the previously expressed sorts of general concerns are valid, even if there turns out to be {other overriding technical issues, or some sort of misunderstanding} in this particular case. > If there would be a "Full Metal Perl" movie, the imdb > quote collection would contain: > > "These are great days we're living, bros. We are jolly green > giants, > walking the Earth with Perl6. Good start .... > These principles we stole here today > are the finest principles we will ever know. After we rotate back However .... "Finest principles known now" is extremely likely a subset of "finest principles we will ever know" (especially considering how relatively recently most were discovered, and especially if you live at least another 10+ years). One *huge* advantage of Perl 6 is to make it *much* easier to copy *new* great ideas as they come along. I think that one of Perl 6's greatest design principles is to anticipate discovering new great design principles. > to > the world, we're gonna miss not having any principle around that's > worth stealing." Oh yea? What about Perl 7!? :-) I expect that Perl 7 will have at least 1 or 2 new "finest principles" that will be back-ported to Perl 6. My wild guess is that an early perl7 production prototype will be available around 2020. But I think it's a big mistake to get too stuck on specific Perl version numbers, versus featuring the evolutionary role and trajectory of Perl: "Perl++, the most natural language of software progress; featuring CPAN++, the executable Wikipedia of software expertise." (This generic designation also has the virtue of reminding people that the other branch of Perl is also evolving, with Perl 5.10 well along in the works, and Perl 5.12 seems a very likely follow-on prospect.) Best regards, Conrad Schneiker http://perl.net.au/wiki/Perl_6_Users_FAQ (Moved from AthenaLab to Perl 6 Wiki.) www.AthenaLab.com (Nano-electron-beam and micro-neutron-beam technology.)