Raku (programming language): Difference between revisions

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{{Blockquote|text=In Perl 6, we decided it would be better to fix the language than fix the user.|author=Larry Wall<ref>{{cite book|title=Masterminds of Programming: Conversations with the Creators of Major Programming Languages|first1=Federico|last1=Biancuzzi|first2=Shane|last2=Warden|year=2009|publisher="O'Reilly Media, Inc." |isbn=978-0596515171|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yB1WwURwBUQC&q=%22In%20Perl%206%2C%20we%20decided%20it%20would%20be%20better%20to%20fix%20the%20language%20than%20fix%20the%20user%22}}</ref>}}

The Raku design process was first announced on 19 July 2000, on the fourth day of that year's [[O'Reilly Open Source Convention|Perl Conference]],<ref>{{cite web |title=Report from the Perl Conference |url=http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2000/08/tpc4.html |author=Kline, Joe |date=2000-08-21}}</ref> by [[Larry Wall]] in his ''[[Perl#State of the OnionCommunity|State of the Onion]] 2000'' talk.<ref>{{cite web |title=State of the Onion 2000 |last1=Wall |first1=Larry |author1-link=Larry Wall |publisher=O'Reilly Network |url=http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2000/10/23/soto2000.html |year=2000}}</ref> At that time, the primary goals were to remove "historical warts" from the language; "easy things should stay easy, hard things should get easier, and impossible things should get hard"; and a general cleanup of the internal design and [[application programming interface]]s (APIs). The process began with a series of [[Request for Comments]] (RFCs). This process was open to all contributors, and left no aspect of the language closed to change.<ref>{{cite web |title=About Perl 6 RFCs |author=The Perl Foundation |url=https://raku.org/archive/rfc/meta/ |year=2000}}</ref>

Once the RFC process was complete, Wall reviewed and classified each of the 361 requests received. He then began the process of writing several "Apocalypses", using [[wikt:apocalypsis#English|the original meaning of the term]], "revealing".<ref name="apoc1">{{cite web |url=https://www.perl.com/pub/2001/04/02/wall.html/ |title=Apocalypse 1: The Ugly, the Bad, and the Good |last1=Wall |first1=Larry |author1-link=Larry Wall |date=2001-04-02}}</ref> While the original goal was to write one Apocalypse for each chapter of ''[[Programming Perl]]'', it became obvious that, as each Apocalypse was written, previous Apocalypses were being invalidated by later changes. For this reason, a set of Synopses was published, each one relating the contents of an Apocalypse, but with any subsequent changes reflected in updates. Today, the Raku specification is managed through the "roast" testing suite,<ref>{{cite web |title=Raku test suite |website=[[GitHub]] |url=https://github.com/Raku/roast |year=2019}}</ref> while the Synopses are kept as a historical reference.<ref name="syn">{{cite web |last1=Wall |first1=Larry |author1-link=Larry Wall |author2=The Perl 6 designers |title= Perl 6 Design Documents| url=https://design.raku.org/ |year=2015}}</ref>