Most Perl 6 will look like Perl 5

[Aidan Samuel]

On Jan 29, 2008 1:37 PM, Abigail <abigail at abigail.be> wrote:
>
> I see 'perl6' in the same way as 'PHP' and 'Ruby'. They both started
> from the idea "we want something like Perl, but then different".
> They both have their followers. They both pulled people away from Perl.
> Neither of them killed Perl.
>
> Why would perl6 kill Perl?
>

This is roughly how my thought process went:
If a large minority (or small majority) of perl5 developers stay
behind and refuse to accept perl6, we could end up with 50% of cpan
modules being developed for 5, and 50% with 6 in mind. As time
progresses, a 5 programmer will find more and more modules on the 6
track failing to work, and vice-versa. Potential users will be scared
off, not knowing which one to choose and will be seduced by Java. All
the extra man-hours wasted on writing code in such a verbose language
will exacerbate the economic downturn experience in, initially, the
US. Bush will be re-elected and will again fail to ratify the Kyoto
protocol and the earth will choke on it's own smog, thus withholding
from the human race the opportunity to develop intergalactic space
travel, and hence confining the few survivors to the surface. The sun
will eventually go supernova and consume all life in our solar system,
hence rendering all human endeavour ultimately pointless.

But, as someone else explained, 5&6 should be compatible so it should be ok.