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perl6-compiler Mailing List Started

Posted by timothy on from the compile-on dept.

horos2c writes "Well, it looks like perl6 has reached the point where development on the compiler has started. The perl6-compiler list has been started, and has a total of 55 messages so far, as of this posting, and there's a large thread on perl6's current status."

9 of 38 comments (clear)

  1. Ruby - Perl 6 now by Zeroth_darkos · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Forget Perl 6. I want a Ruby compiler for Parrot. Anyway Perl 6's VM, Parrot, is a more important accomplishment than Perl 6, the language.

    1. Re:Ruby - Perl 6 now by Colonel+Panic · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Forget Perl 6. I want a Ruby compiler for Parrot. Anyway Perl 6's VM, Parrot, is a more important accomplishment than Perl 6, the language.

      Indeed. And Ruby seems to be what Perl 6 aspires to be. Seriously, look at the list of features being added to Perl 6 and you get the idea that they're being heavily influenced by Ruby. They even have the idea of the 'Ruby-meter' in the Perl 6 community; as in how well does a particular proposed feature score on the 'Ruby-meter', so even they seem to think of Ruby as the benchmark.

      BTW: If you're looking for a Ruby frontend for Parrot, why not jump in and help us make one? The project is called
      Cardinal

      Ruby: Because I can't wait until Perl 6 is finished

    2. Re:Ruby - Perl 6 now by Chester+K · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Anyway Perl 6's VM, Parrot, is a more important accomplishment than Perl 6, the language.

      I used to follow Parrot's development closely, with great interest. Then I found Mono. Say what you will about Microsoft, but they designed a kickass VM; and there's a fully functional 1.0-level open source version of it available today. And as the author of IronPython adequately demonstrated, it works just fine for dynamic scripting languages.

      In my opinion as a one-time Perl6/Parrot devotee, it's taken too long. By the time it ships, it'll be irrelevant. And, like it or not, Parrot's ultimate fate will likely be tied to Perl6, even though they're seperate projects; and Perl as a language is on a decline. The places where it used to be the only choice are rapidly being eroded by other, arguably better choices. Python for system administration tasks, and PHP (yeech, I know, but most of the time you only need the Tonka truck of languages) for web applications. Perl still reigns supreme for reporting, but honestly --- how often do you do that?

      That's not even getting into the fact that Parrot seems to be being built around academic ivory-tower design concepts, like continuations, that seem spiffy-keen at first glance, but probably won't see that much usage in reality. (Perl6 suffers the same problem with the extreme focus on neato features with limited practical usefulness, like superpositions.)

      Why should I use Parrot instead of Mono? Why should I use Perl6 instead of Python/PHP?

      --

      NO CARRIER
    3. Re:Ruby - Perl 6 now by CatGrep · · Score: 4, Interesting

      This is interesting: here we have a Perl 6 story and there are more comments about Ruby than about Perl 6.

      It does seem as though Perl has become rather passe these days. Is Perl considered 'so '90's' now as to be irrelevant? Has Perl 6 missed it's opportunity window? Maybe if they would have had it done a year or two ago it would have still been able to generate some buzz, but now it would appear that the people who wanted major improvements to the language (especially OO features) have moved on to other languages like Ruby.

      How about:
      Ruby: Because I'll be retired by the time Perl 6 is eventually finished

      OR:
      Ruby: It's not vapor

    4. Re:Ruby - Perl 6 now by tree_frog · · Score: 4, Interesting
      OK, a couple of things that should be cleared up here (as a Rubyist of 4 years standing)
      1. VMs are different strokes for different folks. yes, the .NET VM (and the Mono VM) are very fine pieces of work. But they are designed for statically typed languages. Perl, Python and Ruby are all dynamically typed, and the Parrot VM is specifically designed for dynamically typed languages.
      2. Continuations are really rather spiffy useful things. Take a look round comp.lang.ruby at some point, there is a very good (and amusing) explanation of how you might wish to use one here
      Best regards,

      treefrog

    5. Re:Ruby - Perl 6 now by straybullets · · Score: 3, Interesting

      In my opinion as a one-time Perl6/Parrot devotee, it's taken too long. By the time it ships, it'll be irrelevant. And, like it or not, Parrot's ultimate fate will likely be tied to Perl6, even though they're seperate projects; and Perl as a language is on a decline

      Well that is a point of view, althought what i see in my workplace is that Perl is being more and more used as a tool for small/medium projects, and it is script language number one on windows. I wonder how long it will take for ruby to achieve the same position.

      I have to say that Python never did catch on here. I saw it in another job but it was kept to a very small part on a big C++ project.

      I don't know of any admin using python or ruby for admin task ! It's either shell, perl, or C since i on 3000 Unix servers i guess i can't count with my fingers the ones where ruby is installed !

      --
      With that aggravating beauty, Lulu Walls.
    6. Re:Ruby - Perl 6 now by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Well, Larry says it best: "Perl is not terribly worried about where it fits on the Rubyometer. Ruby will need to worry about where it fits on the Perlometer." (http://www.mail-archive.com/perl6-language@perl.o rg/msg14358.html)

      As evidenced by "P.S. I think we deserve a $rubyometer-- for bypassing mixins." (http://www.mail-archive.com/perl6-all@perl.org/ms g32930.html), I think it's safe to say that nobody is particularly happy about overly-high Rubyometer readings.

  2. Periodic Table of the Perl 6 Operators by cpeterso · · Score: 4, Interesting


    The Periodic Table of the Perl 6 Operators sheds light on just how scary Perl 6 will be. Don't forget: Perl is "easy" to learn!

    --
    cpeterso
  3. OO features by Anonymous+Brave+Guy · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Maybe if they would have had it done a year or two ago it would have still been able to generate some buzz, but now it would appear that the people who wanted major improvements to the language (especially OO features) have moved on to other languages like Ruby.

    That's kind of an odd example, because "everything is an object" is only an approximation, and IME it's only a good enough approximation to offer any benefits in medium-large developments. We're talking about languages principally used for scripting purposes here, a different world entirely.

    I hope Perl isn't going to try and turn into a large-scale, OO-crazy development language. We've already got several of those, and all them are much more suited to the task than Perl.

    --
    If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.