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kabwj

>I LOVED Perl.

5 exists and will always exist. :-)

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CPAN also exists, but not as it once did. Perl 5 wasn't just a language, but an ecosystem.

> CPAN also exists, but not as it once did.

Right, it's way better. What makes you ignore all the great improvements the PTS have made?

It will never get a new major version number though.

... if they don’t decide to just name perl 5.100 “perl 7” instead

It's unfortunate, but it has no practical bearing on the fact that the language is still actively maintained and improved upon, with a major release every year in late May -- 5.32.0 being the latest such release.)

It will not, however, always get security updates, performance improvements, and maintenance for its libraries.

Can you elaborate on languages that will?

I wasn't commenting on Perl as a language, but rather a specific version of the language.

The thing is, Perl6 as it exists today can not be used as a replacement for Perl5, and in consequence, Perl5 development continues and will continue for the forseeable future. It's better to think of Perl5 and Perl6 as two separate languages in the Perl family, similar to various Lisp dialects.

Perl 5 and Perl 6 are essentially separate languages at this point, so Perl 5 will continue to get features and updates for as long as anyone uses it, which will be a very long time yet.

The current state of Perl 5 for Python fans:

----

Perl 5: I'm not dead!

TIOBE: 'Ere! 'E says 'e's not dead!

Internet: Yes he is.

Perl 5: I'm not!

TIOBE: 'E isn't?

Internet: Well... he will be soon-- he's very ill...

Perl 5: I'm getting better!

Internet: No you're not, you'll be stone dead in a moment.

TIOBE: I can't take 'im off like that! It's against regulations!

Perl 5: I don't want to go off the chart....

Internet: Oh, don't be such a baby.

TIOBE: I can't take 'im off....

Perl 5: I feel fine!

Internet: Well, do us a favor...

TIOBE: I can't!

Internet: Can you hang around a couple of minutes? He won't be long...

TIOBE: No, gotta get to Reddit, they lost nine today.

Internet: Well, when's your next round?

TIOBE: Next year.

Perl 5: I think I'll go for a walk....

Internet: You're not fooling anyone, you know-- (to TIOBE) Look, isn't there something you can do...?

Perl 5: I feel happy! I feel happy!

----

But seriously, Perl 5.30 just came out in May. It's not dead yet.

I didn't mean to suggest that Perl 5 is dead, only that it's reasonable for people to consider Perl 5 to be deprecated sooner than Perl 6 will be.

I am not so sure.

Perl 5 is more widely used and had much greater historical adoption as the "glue" of the early Internet.

Perl 6 has not displaced Perl 5 and does not appear to be in a position to do so. I believe Perl 5 may out last Perl 6 based on how widely it is used and available.

It is a different situation compared to Python 2 / Python 3. Whereas Python 3 is slowly replacing Python 2, the same cannot be said for Perl 6 slowly replacing Perl 5.

Python2 is EOL as of the end of this year.

Exactly--there is momentum to migrate from Python 2 to Python 3 since support for Python 2 is ending.

I prefer Python 3 to Python 2 and have migrated all my projects that still matter.

Support for Perl 5 is not (to my knowledge) ending anytime soon.

I see no realistic weight behind the notion that P5 will be deprecated in the foreseeable future (decades).

Python 2 or 3 fans?

Both.

It's taken with minor adjustments from this Monty Python scene: https://youtu.be/Jdf5EXo6I68

Wait, what? Is there a reason to believe that indefinite future maintenance of Perl 5 is more in doubt than of, say, Ruby or OCaml? (Of course it has a smaller community than, say, Python or Go, but the community is still existent and AFAIK intends to maintain it indefinitely.)

I don't doubt Perl's longevity, only the maintenance of a specific version. I'd say the same of Python 2, despite its alarmingly long afterlife thus far.

But the Python 2 development community a) has announced a specific date for end of life (January 1 of next year), b) had communicated the intention to sunset Python 2 in favor of Python 3 for years before the specific date was announced, c) is no longer applying anything but critical bugfixes to Python 2, and d) has collectively moved to developing Python 3. None of these are true of Perl 5/6.

Alternatively, if we're going to look for analogies in other languages instead of listening to statements from the Perl 5 community themselves, let's make an analogy to C and C++. Despite C++ having been a mature, usable language for decades, people are still using and developing C compilers and libraries.

Perl 5 and Perl 6 are completely separate languages, they aren't "versions" of the same language.

A rather non-obvious fact, because the language names clearly and misleadingly suggest otherwise.

You're right Perl 5.18 is no longer being maintained.

But Perl 5.30 is still maintained, and almost all Perl 5.18 code should run on it unaltered.

---

As far as I know, there is no-one who is involved with maintaining both Perl5 and Perl6. There are separate groups for both.

In fact I think there are more people being paid to work on Perl5 than there are being paid to work on Perl6.

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