[Gambas-user] OFF: Perl 6 Design Philosophy

[Nelson Ferraz]

>From the Perl 6 design principles:

``Perl Should Stay Perl

Everyone agrees that Perl 6 should still be Perl, but the question is,
what exactly does that mean? It doesn't mean Perl 6 will have exactly  
the same syntax. It doesn't mean Perl 6 will have exactly the same
features. If it did, Perl 6 would just be Perl 5. So, the core of the
question is what makes Perl "Perl"?''

Therefore, _our_ core question is what makes Gambas "BASIC"?

Here's a possible answer: it is BASIC if it remains true to the original
purpose, is familiar to BASIC programmers, and is mechanically
translatable from other BASICs.

Rationale (from the original article):

``True to the original purpose

Perl will stay true to its designer's original intended purpose. Larry
wanted a language that would get the job done without getting in his
way. The language had to be powerful enough to accomplish complex tasks,
but still lightweight and flexible. As Larry is fond of saying, "Perl
makes the easy things easy and the hard things possible." The
fundamental design philosophy of Perl hasn't changed. In Perl 6, the
easy things are a little easier and the hard things are more possible.

Familiarity

Perl 6 will be familiar to Perl 5 users. The fundamental syntax is still
the same. It's just a little cleaner and a little more consistent. The
basic feature set is still the same. It adds some powerful features that
will probably change the way we code in Perl, but they aren't required.

Learning Perl 6 will be like American English speakers learning
Australian English, not English speakers learning Japanese. Sure, there
are some vocabulary changes, and the tone is a little different, but it
is still--without any doubt--English.

Translatable

Perl 6 will be mechanically translatable from Perl 5. In the long term,
this isn't nearly as important as what it will be like to write code in
Perl 6. But during the transition phase, automatic translation will be
important. It will allow developers to start moving ahead before they
understand every subtle nuance of every change. Perl has always been
about learning what you need now and learning more as you go.''

http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2003/06/25/perl6essentials.html

[]s

Nelson