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Perl 6: Apocalypse 6 Released
data64 writes "The latest Apocalypse talks about subroutines. Looks like we finally get type signatures which are way more powerful than the rudimentary prototypes available with Perl5."
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The Previous Apocolypses as well as some more info (who's who, list summaries). Read up!
On another note, is Perl 6 even going to be relevant with next-generation languages like Ruby and Python already fairly mature? ;-)
Does php provide anything like this?
What I typically hear and feel myself is that the php site documentation is sparse to a fault, with a great deal of useful information simply left out. Check out how many holes are filled in by contributors at the bottom of each page of the php.net site docs. These are glaring ommissions.
I dont see the inherent advantage in desinging a language thats hard to read.
This is what's great about perl 6. Yes, it has so many insane features and rediculous complex rules and bizarre exceptions to its rules that when reading code with someone else's programming style, you may as well be reading a different programming language (Quick! What's the difference between "sub foo will do { something() }" and " { something() } " ?).
But the real strength in perl 6 is that it's just about infinitely configurable. You can redefine the grammar to fit your needs or whims. This is going, naturally, to cause 17 year olds who load their grammars up so much with wierd macros that their programs will become literal line noise that ceases to function if you change one character, but it will also mean that in the "enterprise", you can be completely shielded from the messiness. All it takes is defining a specialized version of "use strict" that reduces the language down to what you need, and suddenly perl 6 is some very simple, simple, easy to understand language. As long as the speed's OK, people enforce standardized coding within an organization and the default -w is really careful to warn you if you say { 1, 2, 3 => "a" } and it looks like what you probably meant was hash { 1, 2, 3 => "a" } , i don't see it being a real problem. And from a compatibility stndpoint, having one language with EVERYTHING and the ability to cut out what you don't need in wide swaths is way better than recurring situations where people go "well.. i want to use java, but i need feature X" and wind up using some funky third-party jvm compiler that produces huge executables and requires funky tricks to incorporate into my build cycle."
Perl 6 is as hairy as you want it to be, and no more.
Perl 6 is going to be the bestest second system ever! ^_^
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
You obviously aren't aware of exactly what Perl 6 is. It's more than just a language, it's a whole runtime environment similar to .NET or Java. When Perl 6 comes out you can continue to use your Perl 5 scripts with it, or write scripts in Pascal, or in C, or in Java, or in BrainFuck. The compiler and runtime are completely separated.
..There's a-dooin's a-transpirin'
The default on perl 6 is to use perl 5 compatability mode. So you won't need both.
pod (plain old documentation) is what most perl hackers use. Easier to maintain than javadoc and the documentation stays with the code.
$ perldoc perlpod
It will be comparatively simply for a coding team to create a "policy" module (say, Policy/Our/Preferred/Style.pm) that restricts coders to an agreed-upon subset of the language's syntax and features. Thereafter, so long as every module begins with use Policy::Our::Preferred::Style, the rest of the module simply won't compile unless it conforms to the team's coding standards.
And I suspect that enough groups will want to do this that it will make sense for someone to write a front-end module that simplifies the creation of such policies. So all your team will need to write will be something like:
Larry Wall does seem to have taken seriously the "Nothing is sacred" bit. Earlier in Apocalypse 5, he wrote (about the earlier (?...) regex syntax decision) "It's not correct now, since the Perl 6 approach is to break everything that needs breaking all at once."
So, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Perl 6 will be different from 5. It appears that it should be better when you look at it from certain directions, and worse from others. Paradigm shift? Sure. I think lwall just got bored with where Perl 5 was going, and wanted to do something different.
Anyway "* signifies a glob" is one of those sacred things that was to be examined carefully. I'm guessing that most useful existing Perl 5 code doesn't use "*" that way except for filehandles. Several other 'modern' languages use "*" for type definitions, so it might make sense from the point of making it easier for a new Perl6 programmer to learn.