In Perl 6, all builtin functions belong to a named package (generally a class or role). Not all functions are guaranteed to be imported into the global package C<::*>. In addition, the list of functions imported into C<::*> will be subject to change with each release of Perl. Authors wishing to "Future Proof" their code should either specifically import the functions they will be using, or always refer to the functions by their full name. After 6.0.0 comes out, global aliases will not be removed lightly, and will never be removed at all without having gone through a deprecation cycle of at least a year. In any event, you can specify that you want the interface for a particular version of Perl, and that can be emulated by later versions of Perl to the extent that security updates allow.