dean

The Camelia mascot of the language now known as Raku is a brightly coloured metaphor for the transition from Perl 6 to it's new identity. My hope is that having emerged from it's cocoon, Raku will flap it's wings and fly skyward, boldy seeking new adventures.

I congratulate the team for making this decision, specifically Elizabeth Mattijsen for being so bold as to propose the change request that triggered the end game. No doubt other people where involved that I am not familiar with, they deserve generous praise and recognition too.

My personal involvement in Raku/Perl6 is literally zero. So I make this post as a person for whom Perl 5 continues to be a delight for personal projects, and sadly declining professionally.

Reading through the public comments there are a lot of strong feelings - some of them hurt feelings. Humans are fundamentally emotional creatures, and the grief associated with strong disappointment follows the same path to acceptance no matter how rational a person fancies themselves.

So without addressing specific concerns, I hope these people will see the amazing opportunity to make lemonade from the lemons they may feel they have been dealt.

Put simply: A new identity for Raku is an amazing opportunity for both Perl and Raku.

Which is why I think that the next step should be establishing a new Raku Foundation as quickly as possible, with it's own board, its own charter, and control of its own destiny.

Having a new foundation offers people new opportunities to be leaders and get involved in a project they are passionate about. This new Raku Foundation can set new goals for the Raku language and community, try new things, repeat past mistakes, and enjoy a (largely) blank canvas.

At a high level, a Raku Foundation might be concerned with establishing intellectual property, growing their community, establishing the language in distributions, finding niches for production and/or academic usage, running their own conferences, involvement with GSoC et. al., fundraising activities etc.

This would free up The Perl Foundation to put a laser focus on Perl 5, with goals related to supporting the legacy of the user base and finding new relevance etc.

A metaphor for such a split might be that of a 19 year old moving out of home - excited for change, full of aspiration, new ideas and excited to live their life out from under their parents. And parents with new ideas for the vacant room - or looking to sell the family home for a sea or tree change.

Be excited, embrace the blue sky!