Dear perl Porters,
I believe that the intense discussions which have taken place on this list for the last
few weeks, may be "confused" or "poisoned" by the basic "version thing".
Because of the unfortunate "perl 6 namespace" episode, for the past 2-3 years (or is it 5,
I lost track), perl has been constrained to using higher and higher version/subversion
numbers is the 5.x.y series. But it is by and large a consensus now that perl's version
numbering should at some point "jump over" the fatidic 6.x series, to 7.x.y, and then
continue happily thereafter.
So why don't we do that first, independently of any major or minor "breaking change".
In the practice, what I propose is that there would be next a release of perl 5.34 (?) AND
perl 7.0.0, *absolutely identical apart from the version number*, and then that 5.34
remains as the last "5.x" version forever, an that future versions of "7.x" resume the
gradual "corrections, non-breaking improvements" cycle that perl has basically followed
for the last 20+ years.
And then, a bit later (*) and/or in parallel, restart a discussion about a "more modern
perl", and whether it should or not introduce breaking changes, whether or not it would
continue to work with the majority of CPAN modules, and whether or not it would then
become another programming language "in the perl tradition/family" with its own name
("perl++" ?).
My own main reason for the above, would be to avoid what I believe may be an endless cycle
of annoyance and confusion for /mere perl users/ (and their bosses), related to things
like "use v5.x / use v7.y", and whether or not CPAN modules are compatible with this or
that version etc..
Because I believe that in the practice, this would in the end kill the language (**).
Furthermore, I would urge anyone to re-read the "manifesto" as per
https://www.perl.org/about.html, and reflect on what has made perl a great programming
language for over 30 years now. And I just wish that nobody would destroy that, no matter
what good intentions would be behind such an action.
(*) such as maybe when things have settled in terms of any major OS distribution having
this new "7.0.0" version as it's standard "perl" package, with a reasonable expectation
that it does not kill too many existing applications, modules, mod_perl etc..
(**) which is, in my modest opinion, the greatest, most flexible, most stable and most
universal programming language ever invented. But it is nowadays "fragile" in terms of
acceptance, and we should not forget that when thinking about changes which just /might/
put off some of its users.
I believe that the intense discussions which have taken place on this list for the last
few weeks, may be "confused" or "poisoned" by the basic "version thing".
Because of the unfortunate "perl 6 namespace" episode, for the past 2-3 years (or is it 5,
I lost track), perl has been constrained to using higher and higher version/subversion
numbers is the 5.x.y series. But it is by and large a consensus now that perl's version
numbering should at some point "jump over" the fatidic 6.x series, to 7.x.y, and then
continue happily thereafter.
So why don't we do that first, independently of any major or minor "breaking change".
In the practice, what I propose is that there would be next a release of perl 5.34 (?) AND
perl 7.0.0, *absolutely identical apart from the version number*, and then that 5.34
remains as the last "5.x" version forever, an that future versions of "7.x" resume the
gradual "corrections, non-breaking improvements" cycle that perl has basically followed
for the last 20+ years.
And then, a bit later (*) and/or in parallel, restart a discussion about a "more modern
perl", and whether it should or not introduce breaking changes, whether or not it would
continue to work with the majority of CPAN modules, and whether or not it would then
become another programming language "in the perl tradition/family" with its own name
("perl++" ?).
My own main reason for the above, would be to avoid what I believe may be an endless cycle
of annoyance and confusion for /mere perl users/ (and their bosses), related to things
like "use v5.x / use v7.y", and whether or not CPAN modules are compatible with this or
that version etc..
Because I believe that in the practice, this would in the end kill the language (**).
Furthermore, I would urge anyone to re-read the "manifesto" as per
https://www.perl.org/about.html, and reflect on what has made perl a great programming
language for over 30 years now. And I just wish that nobody would destroy that, no matter
what good intentions would be behind such an action.
(*) such as maybe when things have settled in terms of any major OS distribution having
this new "7.0.0" version as it's standard "perl" package, with a reasonable expectation
that it does not kill too many existing applications, modules, mod_perl etc..
(**) which is, in my modest opinion, the greatest, most flexible, most stable and most
universal programming language ever invented. But it is nowadays "fragile" in terms of
acceptance, and we should not forget that when thinking about changes which just /might/
put off some of its users.