Perl numbrenclature support
Erez Schatz has proposed that each released version of Perl be referred to as a code name.
Besides the fact that "Erez Schatz" is a cool name by itself, I think he's on to something.
Since it's clear that the Perl6 moniker is going to remain, and most folks are too curmudgeonly to change the name of Perl5, this seems like a good compromise. It allows for a clear marketing difference for each release - one that obviously works elsewhere in the tech industry.
- Perl 5.8 Zombie (because it never dies, haunting us until the end of days)
- Perl 5.10 Onion
- Perl 5.12 Camel
- Perl 5.14 Llama
- Perl 5.16 Butterfly
(You know Sebastian's going to jump at the chance to design a nifty logo for each one)
Peter Shangov's idea is also worth pursuing - a Perl distribution with all the modern toolkits included. Given the recent logo activity, it should be called Raptor. It would be easy enough to start referring to "Raptor", just as "Rails" is a rallying cry for the Ruby folk. It could be downloadable from http://raptor.perl.org, of course - possibly even installable via perlbrew:
$ perlbrew install raptor
I do not like the status quo. There is always a better way; the question is whether you care enough to find it.
Presumably perl 5.005 should be codename Cthulhu, and prior to that should have no codename (i.e. the nameless ones)?
The more I think about Raptor Perl the more awesome it sounds to me :-)