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Perl 6 Released (wordpress.com)
Earlier this month, we noted the Perl 6 advent calendar. Now, an anonymous reader writes to note that, right on schedule, and after 15 years of work, Perl 6 has been released. The top two bullet points in the linked description say that the newest Perl "retains the core values of Perl: expressiveness, getting the job done, taking influences from natural language, and pushing the boundaries of language design," and
that is "has clean, modern syntax, rooted in familiar constructs but revisiting and revising the things that needed it." However, while it's nice to see Perl 6 reach official release, the team behind it takes pains to note that work goes on: "We will continue to ship monthly releases, which will continue to improve performance and our user’s experience." Further, "[T]his Rakudo release is not considered the primary deliverable for this Christmas; it is the language specification, known as “roast” (Repository Of All Spec Tests), that is considered the primary deliverable."
So, Pugs turned into a disaster after the lead programmer "decided to change his gender". That's quite a lovely way to describe somebody's personal struggle, or an insightful way to describe what happened to Pugs (several parts are used in Perl 6, so not a disaster). She (not a he, but a she) is still followed by many of us, and when anybody in the Perl community talks of her, it is with fondness and respect.
Next to that, you must really really hate the fact that at least three other transgenders have worked on Perl 6 since the lead programmer you mentioned went away because of personal reasons. It was really a disaster. The other people felt really uncomfortable with us three. Oh, wait, they didn't, hugs everywhere, friendliness galore. That's the nice thing about the Perl community: friendliness, helpful, useful, and above all, mostly not bigoted, mostly no transphobia, mostly no homophobia, and mostly no nasty people that use mean language to demean other people.
I am also happy that you despise our lovely butterfly Camelia. It was especially designed by Larry Wall himself to appeal to 7 year old girls. But also to see who says nasty things about a programming language that has the courage to have such a logo, because such a person probably will not feel at home in our community.
Well, the Perl community, and in this case certainly the community of Perl 6 developers, is a community with friendly people. We love Camelia. I feel loved as a person, and it does not seem to matter that I am transgender. Maybe you have to find a place of your own where people appreciate who and what you are. Maybe at some point you will learn to say nicer things.