Perl 6 is now Raku. Officially | Hacker News Reader

Perl 6 is now Raku. Officially

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14 pointsxisukar6 comments

As someone who used to make his living writing Perl, and who's been pretty salty about Perl 6/Raku for quite a long time now (because of how it led to the "used to" part), let me say to the Perl community in response to this news:

Congratulations. Seriously!

I know how contentious an issue this has been, and I'm glad to see the community finally steering it to what seems like a positive conclusion for both the Perl 5 and Raku sides. This feels like a good outcome. It creates room for both languages to flourish, and puts an end to the days when users of one had to carry the issues with the other around on their backs.

For the first time in a long time, it feels like a bright future can be imagined both for Perl and for Raku. And that's a great thing!

So congratulations! I'm looking forward to seeing what the Perl and Raku communities bring us in the future.

Did you see what already happened in the Raku Facebook group? The founder of that group was angry that another admin already renamed the group from Perl6 to Raku, as he announced to do on Monday. He called him asshole, and banned him. Quite astonishing outrage for a simple prodecural mistake in good faith. This was not the only such ban.

Best is to avoid such toxic communities at all.

> He called him asshole, and banned him. Quite astonishing outrage for a simple prodecural mistake in good faith. This was not the only such ban.

Really sad to hear that. I think the opposition to the rename, probably too late, is quite surprising giving the rename didn't happen overnight. Lizmat's proposal in the Github issue was opened for the community members for quite some time and with over 350 comments, many people shared what they thought about the rename, alternative names, etc. All of this in a respectful manner with the understanding that it was a sentimental topic for some but still acknowledging that it needed to be done regardless of the name chosen. In fact, the proposed name was Camelia but ultimately Raku ended up being the popular choice. Then, the Path to Raku document was created to describe the path for rename and this needed to be approved by several reviewers for the renaming to take place. And if that wasn't enough, Larry Wall gave the green-light to the rename.

Thus, if the rename was almost unanimous and Wall himself approved it (remember Rule 1 and Rule 2 [2]), I don't understand what's all the fuss about.

> Best is to avoid such toxic communities at all.

I don't lurk the Raku Facebook group, mainly because I don't use Facebook. If that's the type of behavior exuded by the admin(s), then I wholeheartedly agree with you about being a toxic place.

That being said, I don't think the Facebook group represents the Raku community at large lest people get the wrong idea. For instance, the folks at #perl6 (and now #raku) IRC channels [1] are the nicest, most helpful, and most amiable people you could ever find in a community. People do disagree there but they do respectfully and without inviting uncivilized discourse.

[1] These IRC channels are the fastest way of getting touch with the Raku community. There are also the subreddits /r/perl6, /r/raku, and /r/rakulang. It's still unknown if /r/perl6 will restrict submissions and redirect them to either /r/raku or /r/rakulang.

[2] Rule 1: Larry is always by definition right about how Perl should behave. This means he has final veto power on the core functionality.

Rule 2: Larry is allowed to change his mind about any matter at a later date, regardless of whether he previously invoked Rule 1. Got that? Larry is always right, even when he was wrong. It's rare to see either Rule exercised, but they are often alluded to.

The fuzz was just about procedural matters. If to rename or create a new group and link the old one to the new, so that new people will find it. Nothing to be outraged about that much.

It was not just about procedural matters. It was about being insensitive. For a lot of people, and that includes me (the originator of the renaming request), having the rename being accepted, still feels about having been told there is no room in the house you've grown up in, and that it is better for you to leave. To have someone else help start packing up your stuff without being asked, to speed up your removal from the place you've called home for a long time, can only be construed as being evicted, rather than being asked to leave because it is better for everybody involved.

Please read: https://www.facebook.com/groups/raku.perl6/permalink/2453539...

The question is really why this person got to be an admin in the Perl 6 Facebook group in the first place, as he did not have anything to do with Perl 6 other than claiming he was working on integrating Perl 5 and Perl 6 into Perl 11 (which he has been for many, many years).

His unwanted change caused all deeplinking that I have done in the Perl 6 Weekly, to all become invalid. To add to this clusterfuque, Facebook policies prohibit changing the name of the Perl 6 group back for another MONTH.

Please check the post of the founder of the group about this: https://www.facebook.com/groups/raku.perl6/permalink/2453539...

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