2¢ alert. Also, IANAG.

The Perl renaissance started without things like Devel::Declare. I'd argue the resurgence and bloom of new tools and kits is not based on syntax, preceding tools, etc at all. It's entirely on the enthusiasm of immensely talented individuals and the amazing productivity that has been possible with Perl for a looooong time.

What you seem to be boostering for is a roadmap to turn Perl 5 into a crypto Perl 6 but without all that controversy, mess, and decade of prep-work. This sounds like an awful idea to me.

Perl 5 is alive and kicking because 1) There are some hella raw, permit me to date myself, developers doing really neat and productivity boosting stuff, 2) Perl 5 is, has been, and should remain be the kind of language, maybe the language that attracts interesting, creative, and experimental developers in numbers.

If you want to see Perl 5 continue to be a language of choice, the key is understand why those developers choose Perl. The facility and freedom of choice/style/approach that Perl gives is, at a minimum, part of that. Maybe most of it.

You're pondering ways to take Perl 5 forward. Perl 5 is moving forward. 5.10-5.14 is happening very fast. Anything involving centralized planning seems to me more likely to get in the way than help things keep moving.

Plack strikes me as a perfect example of how Perl 5 is teh shizzle now. Someone notices that ruby and python were doing some cool stuff and said, “Why don’t we have that in Perl?” And made it real in the space of… what? Didn't miyagawa whip it up in like a week? Look at the ecosystem that’s grown up around it in less than a year.

What is best for the future? COGTFO. Not to be rude but because I write Perl for productivity and for fun. These types of discussions do not serve either.