GADTs and Superpositions in Perl 6 | Hacker News Reader

GADTs and Superpositions in Perl 6

aearnus.github.io

46 pointslizmat7 comments

I feel like Perl 6 is on the top of my "would love to learn, but can't find a good reason languages". Every time I read an article about it I mentally go "Cool! I never knew I really wanted this $thing".

Perl is the ultimate hacker’s language. It is something you work and learn alone, at night. You barely can even show your code to anybody else, but it is a superweapon that helps your productivity in other languages, and helps you with your personal tasks.

How would you compare Perl to Haskell (i.e. in terms of mindexpansion) and APL (i.e. in terms of learning how think tersely)?

I used Perl 5 heavily back in its day but I haven’t kept up with 6 other than occasionally peeking in on progress.

I’m not sure I’ll ever find the time or need to catch up and use it in even a toy project.

But reading articles like this makes me think twice about that. It’s not even so much that Perl 6 looks interesting but that the writing style is just so darn entertaining and informative at the same time.

Reading first books and then early available docs on the internet that kept my attention through humor or interesting anecdotes is what helped me power through difficult to understand concepts and seemingly impossibly cryptic syntax. I am better at what I do today because some authors took the time to infuse some personality into their writing.

Even if you have little to no interest in Perl 6 give this article a go, you might enjoy it!

Superpositions exist in Perl5 too, thanks to Damian Conway who invented them. See Quantum::Superposition on CPAN.

argggh, just when i thought no reason existed to learn perl6, i stumbled across conway's talk on quantum computing done in perl6:

https://www.reddit.com/r/perl6/comments/4p7bnu/on_the_should...

Also, check out his addendum here: https://aearnus.github.io/2019/04/05/perl6-is-the-world-s-wo... ;)

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