> Larry Wall decided ... declared Perl6 to be The Future(tm).
Aiui it was a group of leading P5 devs that made the decision in 2000 to create a backwards incompatible P6, not (just) Larry.
Similarly for Python, Python 3, and GvR.
> Larry decided ... Perl5 wasn't fun anymore
Neither Larry nor GvR has said that about their earlier creations.
Larry did say "We intend to abandon the Perl 5 porter's model of development, which demonstrably leads to a lot of talk but little action." but that's the closest he got to saying Perl 5 wasn't fun anymore. (And P5 regained steam without abandoning the porter's model.)
When announcing P6 Larry said, of P5:
"We all like Perl 5 a lot. We all use it a lot. Many commercial interests will guarantee that Perl 5 continues to be well-maintained ... five years from now a lot of people will still be using Perl 5".
Unfortunately folk jumped to conclusions so this apparently measured statement was still in effect an Osborne One announcement.
> some remaining stuff that's running in Perl5
That's like saying there's some remaining stuff that's running in Python 2.x. True, but grossly misleading.
> some enthusiasts that use Rakudo ... in an attempt to reach the Shangri-La of Perl 6.
The attempt is to produce a compelling option for many future programmers. P6ers may eventually arrive and get stuck at Shangri-La but they clearly hope or think they won't.
> and Parrot
Perl is not tied to Parrot.
Rakudo (or rather the underlying NQP toolchain) is no longer constrained by Parrot because it has its own new dedicated VM. See http://moarvm.org
> blackmailing the users by declaring the "not as fun" old version of your language dead should not be done lightly if you don't want to become the next Perl.
I don't agree that GvR is blackmailing Python users.
But the issue isn't how things actually are. The issue is how things are perceived. If it seems that GvR is blackmailing users, and especially if a bunch of folk are saying as much, there's a problem.
Aiui it was a group of leading P5 devs that made the decision in 2000 to create a backwards incompatible P6, not (just) Larry.
Similarly for Python, Python 3, and GvR.
> Larry decided ... Perl5 wasn't fun anymore
Neither Larry nor GvR has said that about their earlier creations.
Larry did say "We intend to abandon the Perl 5 porter's model of development, which demonstrably leads to a lot of talk but little action." but that's the closest he got to saying Perl 5 wasn't fun anymore. (And P5 regained steam without abandoning the porter's model.)
When announcing P6 Larry said, of P5:
"We all like Perl 5 a lot. We all use it a lot. Many commercial interests will guarantee that Perl 5 continues to be well-maintained ... five years from now a lot of people will still be using Perl 5".
Unfortunately folk jumped to conclusions so this apparently measured statement was still in effect an Osborne One announcement.
> some remaining stuff that's running in Perl5
That's like saying there's some remaining stuff that's running in Python 2.x. True, but grossly misleading.
> some enthusiasts that use Rakudo ... in an attempt to reach the Shangri-La of Perl 6.
The attempt is to produce a compelling option for many future programmers. P6ers may eventually arrive and get stuck at Shangri-La but they clearly hope or think they won't.
> and Parrot
Perl is not tied to Parrot.
Rakudo (or rather the underlying NQP toolchain) is no longer constrained by Parrot because it has its own new dedicated VM. See http://moarvm.org
> blackmailing the users by declaring the "not as fun" old version of your language dead should not be done lightly if you don't want to become the next Perl.
I don't agree that GvR is blackmailing Python users.
But the issue isn't how things actually are. The issue is how things are perceived. If it seems that GvR is blackmailing users, and especially if a bunch of folk are saying as much, there's a problem.