>> 1. For the last few years almost all discussion is entirely on #perl6. > > Which seems to be working extremely well...just not for me. I can't > manage to track these discussions (even via the logs). I find the > interleaving of multiple threads utterly impossible to cope with. > Thank you for saying that. I thought only I was confused and/or stupid.
> I do think Perl 6 is an incredibly good fit for teaching both CS in general > and programming paradigms in particular. To catch on, Perl 6 has to do at least one of two things; a) solve some current general problem uniquely well, (as Perl 4 did for system administration and 5 for Web work). b) get stratified into digestible layers (or chunks), so that it's not necessary to grok all 29 synopses (or however many there are now), in order to start doing useful things. It's an awesome language, which is exactly the problem. "Inspiring awe" is not far from inducing panic and terror, especially in people who aren't feeling too confident in the first place. We want to be accessible to the people who start looking nervous when the modulus operator is added to the basic four mathematical signs as operators. Just as K&R starts with "Hello, World", producing visible results from the beginning, there has to be a path from basic operations enabling mastery of mundane chores. Increasing in complexity and abstraction, to the vaporous worlds of operating systems, compilers, and program generators. It won't be linear, more like a spiral, but each stage will be useful. That provides the reward that lures the student deeper into our clutches. (Sorry, the evil mastermind got out of his cage for a moment.) I've made a number of futile stabs at mapping a route, but the language keeps wriggling and morphing as it develops. It's bad enough climbing a steep cliff, without adding tectonic activity. Sorry if I'm being boringly repetitive, but I do see complexity as a barrier to world domination.
