Perl 6

"Perl 5 was my rewrite of Perl. I want Perl 6 to be the community's rewrite of Perl and of the community." — Larry Wall

What is Perl 6?

Perl 6 is a completely new generation of Perl. That means new syntax, new runtime engine(s), new docs, new modules (still a way to use those written in Perl 5 somehow), maybe even new CPAN. It's rebuilt from scratch, but keeps all the good parts of the Perl 5. If you're just looking for the next upgrade of Perl, there will also be a 5.12.

Since the year 2000, Perl 6 has been in the making. The process of arriving at a full implementation of the language has taken a long time; not least because the Parrot virtual machine and its assorted toolchain needed to be built to host the language. Even the design process itself has evolved and matured during this time. Perl 6 is a fresh redesign of Perl, throwing away unfortunate design elements that have accrued — not only in Perl, but in the language design field in general — while keeping the good parts and throwing in some new gems as well.

"Our unofficial slogan is: 'Perl 6: second-system syndrome done right'. " — Larry Wall