Firstly a release has a meaning, taking the current snapshot of the trunk at some fixed date of a month and shipping isn't a release. I don't know from where the term release originated. But when I think of a release, I think of it analogous to a movie release. The movie is 'done'. There can be sequels to the movie, or further parts released later. But the movie released on a date is 'finished' and 'completed' in a defined scope.

What you are talking about is not a release, but I think the appropriate word for it is milestone. You achieve a milestone. And you have internal goals achieved through aiming to get to that milestone.

Now lets talk about taking Perl 6 seriously. Let me tell you everyone that genuinely critics Perl 6 has at one time taken Perl 6 too seriously, hoped and waited for endless time and then given up. I see some problems in marketing and talking about Perl 6. Firstly you need to come up with something solid and then announce, or you shouldn't announce at all. Because the words 'Production release' , '1.0.0', 'ready', 'done' have semantics beyond their dictionary meanings in the software world. Its something like the word 'bug', do we actually have biological worms and pests in software? No! But those words have different meanings beyond their dictionary context.

For most Perl 5 developers, 'Production ready', 'complete', 'done' or any other equivalent word means software at least as much ready and usable as Perl 5 is. There fore if you ever want Perl 6 to be 'complete', its likely to never be- considering the scope and breadth of the work. Its likely to take eternity to capture it as a whole in entirety. Its really huge, I mean Perl 6 specification is something which you don't aim to achieve in one go! Its not possible.

Its like linux, Imagine if Linus went out to write Linux as it exists today when he was a student. I doubt if it would ever be possible. Big, things including Perl 5 itself are built over years! Incrementally and slowly! The right path for Perl 6 should have been in that direction. We needed a Production ready release that could be grown further. Then we could have evolved, extended or do whatever we wanted.

But instead what we have now is some 3 implementations(?), None of them you could compare to Perl 5 level readiness. None of them complete in scope they aimed for. I seriously doubt if the current path will lead to anything usable in coming years either. Its these reasons why people find it difficult to take it seriously anymore.

Programming world is swiftly moving, and new things keep coming every year. I doubt if Perl 6 will even be relevant if it ever comes out in the far future.

In reply to Re^7: Hockey Sticks by Anonymous Monk
in thread Hockey Sticks by raiph

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