I realize it is a volunteer project. People are contributing their hobby time to this passion, in different forms. I understand what a volunteer is, and I don't need patronizing.

I would debate your claim that I severely misunderstand the nature of community-driven development. I get it. I find you saying that I sit around and complain to be just as arrogant and unfair. I do stuff, I get stuff done, I accomplish things, and I do that while investing my time in both university and work before hobbies. I just don't get stuff done in the Perl 6 project, and as a humble outsider to the development of Perl 6 I am musing, and hoping for intelligent answers, about the rate of development in this case.

Your entire post is about volunteers. If we could not expect waving money to succeed, could we expect waving volunteers? Is our stock of volunteers far shorter than was expected or is considered necessary to make timely process? Is the workload simply too large? If that sounds outrageous, and there are issues beyond just the number of volunteers, then perhaps you could offer insight into those issues, instead of just mentioning volunteers in reference to how I am not one of them.

I am sorry that you perceive my comments so negatively, as an expression of ingratitude.... The fact that I am willing to talk about it, and to pose questions that are less than positive, does not mean I am ingrateful.

I have given you the wrong impression, so please accept my apology. I've not perceived any ingratitude from you here, and I think it's worth discussing perceptions of a project. My concerns are only for people who criticize the schedule of a project produced entirely by volunteer labor.

The intent of the original post in this thread was only to say that there are plenty of ways to volunteer that don't necessarily include writing code. Certainly I don't believe that everyone who wants to or will eventually use Perl 6 or Parrot will contribute anything, nor do I expect them to. I do believe that it's reasonably easy to contribute something useful in an afternoon, and I encourage everyone interested to do so. If everyone who wanted to see either or both projects succeed did so, we'd get much further much more quickly.

Again, I don't think you're ungrateful or out of line for starting this discussion, and I apologize for not being clear about that.

Thanks.

Your post does provide a good list of ways to contribute. When I do get some time (say, next term, if everything isn't finished first :P) I will look back on it and try to think of how I can best apply a bit of my time to help the cause.