No, it is not a "must". Perl6 is quite a different thing and not necessarily an "update" to Perl5 (in a slightly similar fashion to how C++ is not an "update" to C) and it will depend on your usage of Perl how you proceed. For an interesting and atypically low-flame discussion see Perl 6 and performance

I am very happy with Perl5 and currently have no plans to migrate to Perl6. YMMV.

Update: In 2019 Perl6 was finally renamed to Raku thus ending almost 2 decades of naming confusion.

In reply to Re: Do i need really to update perl 5 to perl 6? by hippo
in thread Do i need really to update perl 5 to perl 6? by Muskovitz

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