Re: Now, to try again...

Sam Tregar <[email protected]> wrote:

 > possible, right?  Are you saying you don't think we should make it
 > possible for someone to write a C parser for Perl?

For the full language spec, I don't think it's attainable, and honestly
don't see the reason for it within the context of Perl. It doesn't make
sense to me that we would want Perl6 to have the ability (though not
necessarily do it, just the ability to do it if someone has the notion) to
_replace_ python, gnu c, java sdk, lisp, etc. (That's what I'm seeing
here.) There are already languages and interpreters that do that. It makes
sense that we have the ability to change the way we write _Perl_ _within_
_a_ _Perl_ _context_ _and_ _for_ _Perl_ _purposes_, but not that we
actually become a replacement of those language compilers or interpreters,
or attempt to give the ability to replace those interpreters. It's a lofty
goal, but I can't imagine why we'd go that far, or want to, or that we
could think that we could finish that in a stable Perl6 within a
reasonable timeline. It seeks not to revolutionize the Perl language, but
the entire programming universe. I write in Python and end up with Java
bytecode... ummm, huh?

I have to be cynical about this. Of what benefit is this to the Perl
community and language? Changing how we write Perl to include different
flavors and styles... or even different languages: that's realistic; but
it certainly seems beyond the scope or desires of Perl to serve the
purposes of those languages outside of a Perl context, and the current
goals as expressed do seem to breech the confines of that context.

p