“Perl, the scripting language whose flexible connecting
features make it known as “the duct tape of the Web,” will get a
massive upgrade over the next 18 months from its original author,
Larry Wall.”
“The language is being rewritten “from the ground up” to bring
it into the Web-based world and let it work with other Internet
technologies, said Nathan Torkington, one of the developers on the
Perl 6 project. Wall committed the group to the rewrite at the
recent O’Reilly Open Source conference in Monterrey, Calif. Wall
said a preliminary version will be available a year from now and
promised that Perl 6 will be “better, stronger and faster” than its
predecessor.”
“In unveiling the plans for Perl 6, Wall said it will be so
different from Perl 5 that it will require Perl 5 programs to be
recompiled. Hardt said a utility for automatically recompiling Perl
5 programs is expected to be included in Perl 6.”