Raku

They Grow Up So Fast

Raku is the new name for the language formerly known as Perl 6.
In 2000, Larry Wall announced his plan to create a new Perl language.
The initial goal was to remove "historical warts" from Perl.
During 2000, Larry quickly received 361 Requests For Comments.
From 2000 to 2004, Larry wrote 8 Apocalypses.
Beginning in 2004, Larry oversaw the creation of dozens of Synopses.
Unfortunately, backward compatibility with Perl 5 was not a goal.
In 2015, on December 25th, v1.0 of Perl 6 AKA 6.c (Christmas) was released, fulfilling Larry's long-awaited promise that Perl 6 would be "released on Christmas".
The goal was for Perl 5 & Perl 6 to be sibling languages.

There Can Be Only One

In 2012, during the summer months, the Perl Reunification Summit & the Perl 11 Summit were held independently of one another.
Elizabeth "Liz" Mattijsen & Wendy van Dijk organized the Perl Reunification Summit in the municipality of Perl, Germany.
Will 'the Chill' Braswell organized the Perl 11 Summit in Austin, Texas.
Perl developers Reini Urban & Flavio Glock attended both Summits.
Will Braswell & Reini Urban & Ingy döt Net created the Perl 11 movement, which in turn spawned RPerl in 2013, CPerl in 2016, and The Perl Community Roadmap in 2020.
The same overall goals & ambitions were shared by both Perl Summits.
The goal was for Perl 5 & Perl 6 to be reunified into one language.
With the end of Perl 6 in 2019, Perl 11 was consequently retired in 2020.

Coming Of Age

From 2000 to 2019, there was much confusion about the difference between the similarly-named Perl 5 & Perl 6 languages.
The lack of compatibility with Perl 5 caused many developers to question the logic of keeping the Perl 6 name.
The naming issue has long been a source of hurt feelings & strife.
In 2019, after a heated debate, Perl 6 was officially renamed to Raku.
Notably, Larry Wall approved the rename, citing "ancient wisdom".
Now there is once again only one true Perl, formerly known as Perl 5.
There is no longer a language named Perl 6, there is only Raku.
The goal is to clearly differentiate between Perl & Raku.

Separate Spaces

Larry Wall originally stated his preference for combining Perl & Raku conferences, which was meant to encourage the communities to interact & reduce the number of conferences he was expected to attend each year.
However, Larry has since retired, and there is no longer any reason to artificially combine the languages.
Perl developers generally agree the time has come for Raku to find its own way.
Starting in 2024, the Perl Community 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization organizes the Perl Community Conference.
The goal is to have totally separate conferences for Perl & Raku.

The Larry Wall YAPC::Asia Tokyo 2015 photo is copyright by Daisuke Maki in the United States and/or other countries.

You Can't Choose Your Family

From 2000 to 2015, many believed Perl 6 would render Perl 5 obsolete.
When Perl 6 appeared to be vaporware, many developers permanently abandoned Perl in favor of Python, Ruby, etc.
A steady decline in Perl jobs & the perception that "Perl is Dead" gave rise to a form of sibling rivalry & disharmony among the increasingly-fragmented Perl 5 & Perl 6 communities.
Since the 2019 Raku rename, the Perl & Raku communities are actively working to establish independence from one another, while acknowledging the languages' shared origins & family lineage.
The Perl Community 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization does not support Raku or other non-Perl languages.