Given what the Rakudists decided (to voluntarily separate themselves from Perl)

Although I'm personally Perl 5 only, I made a point of following the discussion of Liz's renaming ticket on github. It's been a few months now, so I may have forgotten someone, but I recall exactly zero P6/Raku¹ proponents who supported the renaming because they wanted to jettison the P5 community. There were a couple who were concerned about historical baggage attached to the Perl name, but none who wanted to separate themselves from the community. On the contrary, one of the more common objections from the P6/Raku side was from people who were concerned that a name change would divide the community and possibly even spur (more) ill will between the P5 people and the P6/Raku people.

This statement from TPF is not a refusal to accept reality, it looks to me like an acknowledgement of the reality that many people wanted reassurance that Raku would remain a valued member of the Perl family, regardless of what name it might carry.

The only people I can recall who wanted to see the communities split were a tiny number (2? 3?) of Perl 5 purists who wanted to jettison P6/Raku and everything connected to it, regardless of whether it was renamed or not, while waving a hearty "good riddance". This was not even close to a majority viewpoint on the P5 side, and, again, I don't recall anyone at all on the P6/Raku side who desired this.

Oh, wait... Yes, I think there was one P6/Raku supporter who said he wanted the Raku renaming because he believed it would hasten P5's (in his opinion) long-overdue demise. So I guess the supporters of both languages do include a lunatic fringe. Even so, that remains a tiny minority position, not the general consensus.

 

¹ Using "P6/Raku" here rather than just "Raku" because, at the time of the discussion in question, the renaming had not yet taken place.

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