Self-awareness disclaimer: These are just my thoughts, I claim no authority. I have not participated in any of the purported fierce interpersonal battles that have occurred.

But I'm not an indifferent bystander. I am a long-time Perl programmer, which simply means that I have been programming in Perl =>> 5 <<= for a long time. ^_^

I do think that there should be a "next-gen" Perl. I do think that it should have a clear designator. (This is largely a sociological argument; programming is a social phenomenon.) Be meaningful as a reference to an important and elegant set of new features, attract new people, keep being awesome.

I understand that there is a tension between the core maintainers (who want to elide unnecessary effort) and people who want Perl "next gen" to have a new label (historical marker, presence identifier). Both sides have a good point. Can we not simply do both ?

Can Perl can't be absolute Perl with a market label that matches "[A-Z0-9]" ?This doesn't need to clutter the code. Let the core maintainers make theirs jobs easier. Let 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 be possible market-facing labels. I understand the allusion to "42" and I am a D. Adams fan, but I see more advantage in my set:

7: puts the "6" into the past, is a coherent progression, and is a cool prime number 8: puts both "6" _and_ "7" into the past, and can be tilted to represent Infinity 9: a numerical stretch for the label, but goes to Infinity + 1 \^_^ 10: the power of base 10 and other such marketing possibilities 

I have played with Raku. I'm happy to watch it evolve, there are interesting approaches in the language. I'm happy that Perl and Raku are in the same family. I really am excited about Object::Pad and Corinna.

If I am completely wrong in my musings, please feel free to eli5 -- since this is reddit. ^_^ I confirm that I have indeed been at least 5.

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