Ever since hearing that Perl6 was forthcoming (eventually) and that it was a major rework (read: starting from scratch), I have been reading and playing with some of the new thingies that Dr. Damian Conway has come up with in his exeges. I've also been paying attention to the apocalyspes to get some foundation for what to expect.

I have come to look forward to any and all information related to Perl6. What I haven't heard, however, is much discussion about everyone's views on the inevitable changes tothe language. It looks like there will be significant changes both in what we will be able to do with Perl (more wonderful stuff) and on how we will be doing it. The addition of new data types and that everything will become an object in Perl6 will make us have to fundamentally change how to plan our Perl projects.

While I love Perl because you can use a scalar at any time to represent multiple "datatypes", I also look forward to being able to declare a data type within the language as part of the regular syntax when I need it. Also, I love the idea of replacing the -> operator with . to access object methods and properties, thus ensuring that the style is consistent with other OO languages.

I would love to hear what other Monks are thinking about this. What do you like? What do you hate? Personally, I think that this will be the best version of Perl yet. It may take a little getting used to but as long as it allows(nay - promotes) Impatience, Laziness, and Hubris, I will be happy.