Perl 6 for Mere Mortals
Why Hacker News recommends it
Offered as a pragmatic, convincing counter to the idea that Perl 6 is too strange to use.
What it is
Curtis Poe's FOSDEM talk arguing that day-to-day Perl 6 is far simpler than its enthusiasts' talk of exotic features suggests. He compares basic math and string handling across languages.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 2 different months, 2015 to 2015.
What Hacker News said
Recommends Ovid · 2015-05 · on “Three Tales of Second System Syndrome”
Perl 6 isn't as complex as people make it out to be. I have friends who are race car enthusiasts who could go in to excruciating detail about cars and if you don't know how to drive, it could seem daunting. The reality is that most of us get in to our car and just drive. That's part of the issue with Perl 6: its proponents get very excited about it and write about all the really cool stuff you can do with it, but for those who don't know the language, it sounds intimidating. Here's a talk I gave at FOSDEM explaining how day-to-day Perl 6 is fairly straightforward and easier than people think: [this video]
Recommends agumonkey · 2015-10 · on “Larry Wall Unveils Perl 6.0.0”
The typing and grammar mechanism aren't common, it may influence other languages. Also, Perl managed to survive even without mainstream relevance so the community will probably keep enjoying it. ps: I found this talk pretty convincing about pragmatism [this video] also: [LINK]
Cites raiph · 2015-06 · on “The Three Great Virtues of a Programmer: Laziness, Impatience, and Hubris”
> [lang X] doesn't handle [basic math] correctly among other things. From a recent talk[1], what are x, y, z in the following? x = 7 ÷ 2; y = -7 ÷ 2; z = .1 + .2 - .3 x y z 3.5 -3.5 0 # human 3 ? tiny number # c89; ? depends on compiler 3 -4 tiny number # ruby 3 -4 tiny number # python 2/3 3 -3 0 # bc 3.5 -3.5 tiny number # perl5 3.5 -3.5 0 # perl6 ---- It isn't just basic math. How "long" is the following string? ปฏิบัติจริง 7 characters # human len("ปฏิบัติจริง") = 33 # python 2 len("ปฏิบัติจริง") = 11 # python 3 "ปฏิบัติจริง".length = ? # ruby (For Ruby, I've found "the core language does not provide a way to count [human perceived characters]". [3] Is that still correct or out of date?)