
=encoding utf8

=head1 TITLE

Synopsis 1: Overview

=head1 AUTHORS

    Larry Wall <larry@wall.org>

=head1 VERSION

    Created: 10 Aug 2004

    Last Modified: 30 Jan 2007
    Version: 6

This document originally summarized Apocalypse 1, which covers the
initial design concept.  That original summary may be found below
under "Random Thoughts".  However, these Synopses also contain
updates to reflect the evolving design of Perl 6 over time, unlike
the Apocalypses, which are frozen in time as "historical documents".
These updates are not marked--if a Synopsis disagrees with its
Apocalypse, assume the Synopsis is correct.

Another assumption has been that if we don't talk about something in these
Synopses, it's the same as it is in Perl 5.  Soon we plan to fill in
the gaps with the Perl 5 details though.

=head1 Project Plan

Mostly, we're just a bunch of ants all cooperating (sort of) to haul
food toward the nest (on average).  There are many groups of people
working on various bits and pieces as they see fit, since this is
primarily a volunteer effort.

This document does not attempt to summarize all these subprojects--see
the various websites for Parrot and Pugs and Perl 6 for such
information.  What we can say here is that, unlike how it was with
Perl 5, none of these projects is designed to be the Official Perl.
Perl 6 is anything that passes the official test suite.  This test
suite was initially developed under the Pugs project because that
project is the furthest along in exploring the high-level semantics
of Perl 6.  (Other projects are better at other things, such as speed
or interoperability.)  However, the Pugs project views the test suite
as community property, and is working towards platform neutrality,
so that Perl 6 is defined primarily by its desired semantics, not by
accidents of history.

Another aspect of this is the Perl 6 compiler will be self-hosting.
That is, the compiler will eventually compile itself, at least down
to the point where various code-generating backends can take over.
This largely removes platform dependencies from the frontend, so that
only the backends need to worry about platform-specific issues.

But above all, our project plan is simply to help people find a
spot where they can feel like they're creating the future, both for
themselves and for others.  Around here, that's what we call fun.

=head1 Random Thoughts

=over 4

=item *

The word "apocalypse" historically meant merely "a revealing",
and we're using it in that unexciting sense.

=item *

If you ask for RFCs from the general public, you get a lot of
interesting but contradictory ideas, because people tend to stake
out polar positions, and none of the ideas can build on each other.

=item *

Larry's First Law of Language Redesign: Everyone wants the colon.

=item *

RFCs are rated on "PSA": whether they point out a real Problem,
whether they present a viable Solution, and whether that solution is
likely to be Accepted as part of Perl 6.

=item *

Languages should be redesigned in roughly the same order as you would
present the language to a new user.

=item *

Perl 6 should be malleable enough that it can evolve into the imaginary
perfect language, Perl 7.  This darwinian imperative implies support
for multiple syntaxes above and multiple platforms below.

=item *

Many details may change, but the essence of Perl will remain unchanged.
Perl will continue to be a multiparadigmatic, context-sensitive
language.  We are not turning Perl into any other existing language.

=item *

Migration is important.  The perl interpreter will assume that it
is being fed Perl 5 code unless the code starts with a "class" or
"module" keyword, or you specifically tell it you're running Perl 6
code in some other way, such as by:

    #!/usr/bin/perl6
    use v6.0;
    v6;

=item *

Migration in the other direction is also important.  In Perl 6
mode, one can drop back to Perl 5 mode  with C<use v5> at the
beginning of a lexical block.  Such blocks may be nested:

    use v6;
    # ...some Perl 6 code...
    {
        use v5;
        # ...some Perl 5 code...
        {
            use v6;
            # ...more Perl 6 code...
        }
    }

=item *

Scaling is one of those areas where Perl needs to be multiparadigmatic
and context sensitive.  Perl 5 code is not strict by default, while
Perl 6 code is.   But it should be easy to relax with C<-e> or
a bare version number:

    perl -e '$x = 1'

    #!/usr/bin/perl
    v6; $x = 1;

=item *

It must be possible to write policy metamodules that invoke other
modules on the user's behalf.

=item *

If you want to treat everything as objects in Perl 6, Perl will help
you do that.  If you don't want to treat everything as objects, Perl
will help you with that viewpoint as well.

=item *

Operators are just functions with funny names and syntax.

=item *

Language designers are still necessary to synthesize unrelated ideas
into a coherent whole.

=back

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