

What's new in Perl 5.10.1  - edw519
http://perltraining.com.au/tips/2009-09-07.html

======
draegtun
A couple of slides showing what was new in 5.10.0:

* [http://www.slideshare.net/rjbs/perl-510-for-people-who-arent...](http://www.slideshare.net/rjbs/perl-510-for-people-who-arent-totally-insane)

* <http://www.slideshare.net/acme/whats-new-in-perl-510>

------
zemote
I can't believe perl 6 isn't even close to being out. I'm an old perl hacker
from way back. It is nice to see new features in perl. Perl isn't as sexy as
Python & Ruby these days but it still powers much of the web. The CPAN library
is still far above than what any other language offers. If any of you have
never hacked up some perl code, i can't recommend it enough.

~~~
dragonquest
Actually, Rakudo, the Perl 6 implementation on the Parrot VM is out and the
development team has announced development release #21 for it.

Its probably not the best choice for production work right now, but the
development and improvement is going on at a rapid pace. Be sure to check out
<http://rakudo.org/>

~~~
jerf
Has there been any point in time at which Perl 6 was not developing "at a
rapid pace"?

Promises that Perl 6 will be available Real Soon got worn out in about 2006.
Wake me when something's production ready. The _entire_ Python 3 process has
gone from idea, to preliminary implementation process, to release, and almost
certainly a 3.1 release while Perl 6 has been "rapidly developing" and out at
"Christmas" (yes, I know the nature of the "joke", except _I_ consider it a
joke in the _pejorative_ sense; the _funny_ sense wore out in 2006 too).

And if I had to place money on which will be out first, Python 3.2 or Perl 6,
it's Python in a heartbeat.

~~~
kingkongrevenge
Python 3 is not very ambitious. It's not comparable.

~~~
jerf
But part of the reason Python 3 wasn't "very ambitious" is that the people
building it actually accounted for what could be done, and made a distinction
between "what would be nice" and "what we actually need". It's been a careful,
controlled upgrade process that actually works in the real world. It really is
everything that Perl 6 hasn't been.

In my considered opinion, the way that Perl 5 is partially evolving into Perl
6 even before Perl 6 is out is further evidence that a big bang was neither
necessary nor desirable. There would be at least one discontinuity point, just
like there is for Python 3, but that's manageable.

I'm sure Perl 6 will eventually be released, which is not something I'd say
about most projects in this state, but I don't think the perl community is
doing itself any favors if it fools itself into thinking this went well. It
didn't. Perl 6's _process_ has been a disaster. This point needs to be made.

I'm a professional perl programmer and don't want to see the language die, and
it's been frustrating watching Perl 6 try so hard to kill it. As an open
source project, they have every right to take as long as they like, I'm not
trying to infringe any freedoms, but I have every right to say what I see, and
what I see is not flattering at all.

~~~
chromatic
> In my considered opinion, the way that Perl 5 is partially evolving into
> Perl 6 even before Perl 6 is out is further evidence that a big bang was
> neither necessary nor desirable.

I disagree strongly.

If you look at what I've called the milestones in the Perl renaissance, you
can trace at least half of them (if not more) back to Perl 6.

If you like modern Perl, you owe Perl 6 a huge debt of gratitude.

