From 2c6e274b32c99fb73d5988e1f610263df0ac2558 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Jonathan Scott Duff Date: Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:35:02 -0600 Subject: [PATCH] [preface] "finish" paragraph on Perl 5/6 --- src/preface.pod | 42 ++++++++++++++++++++---------------------- 1 file changed, 20 insertions(+), 22 deletions(-) diff --git a/src/preface.pod b/src/preface.pod index 59bcacd..e72e088 100644 --- a/src/preface.pod +++ b/src/preface.pod @@ -30,28 +30,26 @@ book is not a comprehensive reference. It is a series of tutorials. =head1 Relationship between Perl 6 and Perl 5 -While Perl 6 may seem like the next best version of Perl because 6 is greater -than 5, that is a grosse over simplification. In reality there is a family of -languages that claim the Perl moniker with two main branches in the family tree: -Perl 5 and Perl 6. Both of these branches are growing independently -of each other and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Of course, -since they are both Perl, if one branch comes up with a good idea, it's highly -likely that the other branch will borrow it. - -On the Perl 5 side of the family tree we have things like Strawberry Perl, -ActivePerl, and the canonical Perl 5 distribution. On the Perl 6 side of the -family tree we have Rakudo, SMOP, elf, kp6, pugs, and others. - -Perl is more than just a programming language. It is the language and all of -the cultural artifacts that have become part and parcel with using that -language. For instance, anyone using Perl today also uses the CPAN (Comprehensive Perl -Archive Network). CPAN is an extension of the language. It's a resource that -Perl programmers expect to have available. - -This is similar to the history of Unix. In the beginning there was AT&T -Unix which was good. But some folks thought they could improve upon AT&T -Unix and thus BSD Unix was born. These two Unixes grew independently for -a while until they started borrowing good ideas from one another. Then +Perl 6 is the next major evolution of the language known as Perl. It +represents a major break in syntactic and semantic compatibility from +Perl 5, thus a major version number increase. However, this does not +mean that Perl 5 is going away. In fact, quite the opposite. Both Perl 5 +and Perl 6 have an active developer community that each mould the +language in their own way. Perl 5 developers try to extend the language +in various ways while keeping backwards compatibility with past versions +of Perl. Perl 6 developers extend the language by adding new syntactic +and semantic features that enable more power and expressiveness without +the restriction of backward compatibility with Perl 5. + +Some might ask, "Why call it Perl if it's a different language?" Perl is +more than just the vagaries of syntax. Perl is philosophy (there's more +than one way to do it; easy things easy, hard things possible); Perl is +custom (unit testing); Perl is architectual edifice (Comprehensive Perl +Archive Network); Perl is community (perl5porters, perl6-language). +These are things that both Perl 5 and Perl 6 will share to varying +degrees. Also, due to Perl's habit of stealing good ideas, Perl 5 and +Perl 6 will converge in some areas as Perl 5 borrows ideas from Perl 6 +and vice versa. =head1 Perl 6 implementations