Long time ago I've listed some ideas in my LanX's scratchpad (Things I miss in perl5).

Basically new features should address some problems in

• convenience,
• orthogonality
• acceptance
• maintainability

IMHO

• Signatures must support named arguments and allow introspection.

In combination with here docs an automatic creation of POD would be possible.

• Autoboxing could simplify convoluted syntax!

e.g writing

$nested{hash}[0]->push("value")

is far more readable than

push @{ $nested{hash}[0] }, "value"

• benefiting from previous analysis

The irony is that Perl6 was preceded with a long analysis of Perl5's weaknesses. Looking up that discussions and stealing ideas would be worth it.

• clear vision

There are also varying perceptions of Perl5 in the community, which I tried to address in my talk about "The Camel Paradox".

This needs to be resolved to have more productive discussions.

For instance a good REPL/One-liner language is taking profit from special variables.

In a large professional multi-dev/multi-module environment you prefer a more streamlined syntax.

This could be solved by pragmas and translation tools. All these changes should be partnered with an easily understood "vision" / "business model" building faith in Perl.