Editing Raku (programming language) (section)

==History==
{{Blockquote|text=In Perl 6, we decided it would be better to fix the language than fix the user.|author=Larry Wall<ref>{{cite book|title=Masterminds of Programming: Conversations with the Creators of Major Programming Languages|first1=Federico|last1=Biancuzzi|first2=Shane|last2=Warden|year=2009|publisher="O'Reilly Media, Inc." |isbn=978-0596515171|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yB1WwURwBUQC&q=%22In%20Perl%206%2C%20we%20decided%20it%20would%20be%20better%20to%20fix%20the%20language%20than%20fix%20the%20user%22}}</ref>}}

The Raku design process was first announced on 19 July 2000, on the fourth day of that year's [[O'Reilly Open Source Convention|Perl Conference]],<ref>{{cite web |title=Report from the Perl Conference |url=http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2000/08/tpc4.html |author=Kline, Joe |date=2000-08-21}}</ref> by [[Larry Wall]] in his ''[[Perl#State of the Onion|State of the Onion]] 2000'' talk.<ref>{{cite web |title=State of the Onion 2000 |last1=Wall |first1=Larry |author1-link=Larry Wall |publisher=O'Reilly Network |url=http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2000/10/23/soto2000.html |year=2000}}</ref> At that time, the primary goals were to remove "historical warts" from the language; "easy things should stay easy, hard things should get easier, and impossible things should get hard"; and a general cleanup of the internal design and [[application programming interface]]s (APIs). The process began with a series of [[Request for Comments]] (RFCs). This process was open to all contributors, and left no aspect of the language closed to change.<ref>{{cite web |title=About Perl 6 RFCs |author=The Perl Foundation |url=https://raku.org/archive/rfc/meta/ |year=2000}}</ref>

Once the RFC process was complete, Wall reviewed and classified each of the 361 requests received. He then began the process of writing several "Apocalypses", using [[wikt:apocalypsis#English|the original meaning of the term]], "revealing".<ref name="apoc1">{{cite web |url=https://www.perl.com/pub/2001/04/02/wall.html/ |title=Apocalypse 1: The Ugly, the Bad, and the Good |last1=Wall |first1=Larry |author1-link=Larry Wall |date=2001-04-02}}</ref> While the original goal was to write one Apocalypse for each chapter of ''[[Programming Perl]]'', it became obvious that, as each Apocalypse was written, previous Apocalypses were being invalidated by later changes. For this reason, a set of Synopses was published, each one relating the contents of an Apocalypse, but with any subsequent changes reflected in updates. Today, the Raku specification is managed through the "roast" testing suite,<ref>{{cite web |title=Raku test suite |website=[[GitHub]] |url=https://github.com/Raku/roast |year=2019}}</ref> while the Synopses are kept as a historical reference.<ref name="syn">{{cite web |last1=Wall |first1=Larry |author1-link=Larry Wall |author2=The Perl 6 designers |title= Perl 6 Design Documents| url=https://design.raku.org/ |year=2015}}</ref>

There is also a series of [[wikt:exegesis#English|Exegeses]] written by [[Damian Conway]] that explain the content of each Apocalypse in terms of practical usage. Each Exegesis consists of code examples along with a discussion of the usage and implications of the examples.<ref name="exegeses">{{cite web |url=https://raku.org/archive/doc/exegesis.html |title=Exegeses |author=The Perl Foundation |year=2001}}</ref>

There are three primary methods of communication used in the development of Raku today. The first is the Raku [[Internet Relay Chat]] (IRC) channel on [[Libera Chat]]. The second is a set of [[mailing list]]s.<ref name="lists">{{cite web |title=Raku Community |author=The Raku Programming Language |url=https://raku.org/archive/lists/ |year=2022}}</ref> The third is the [[Git (software)|Git]] [[source code repository]] hosted at [[GitHub]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Raku |website=GitHub |url=https://github.com/raku | access-date=2022-08-19}}</ref>

===Initial goals and implications===
The major goal Wall suggested in his initial speech was the removal of historical warts. These included the confusion surrounding [[sigil (computer programming)|sigil]] usage for containers, the ambiguity between the <code>select</code> functions, and the syntactic impact of bareword [[filehandle]]s. There were many other problems that Perl programmers had discussed fixing for years, and these were explicitly addressed by Wall in his speech.{{citation needed|date=July 2019}}

An implication of these goals was that Perl 6 would not have [[backward compatibility]] with the existing Perl codebase. This meant that some code which was correctly interpreted by a Perl 5 compiler would not be accepted by a Perl 6 compiler. Since backward compatibility is a common goal when enhancing software, the breaking changes in Perl 6 had to be stated explicitly. The distinction between Perl 5 and Perl 6 became so large that eventually Perl 6 was renamed Raku.

===Mascot===
[[File:FOSDEM 2015 Larry Wall and Camelia the Perl6 logo.jpg|thumbnail|Larry Wall and Camelia]]
The language's [[mascot]] is "Camelia, the Raku bug".<ref name="camelia">{{cite web
 |url=http://www.infoworld.com/d/open-source/perl-creator-hints-imminent-release-long-awaited-perl-6-445
 |title=Perl creator hints at imminent release of long-awaited Perl 6
 |first=Joab
 |last=Jackson
 |publisher=IDG News Service
 |date=23 July 2010
 |access-date=2015-02-08
}}</ref>
Her name is a nod to the camel mascot associated with [[Perl]], and her form, in the pun-loving tradition of the Perl community, is a play on "[[software bug]]". Spiral designs embedded in her butterfly-like wings resemble the characters "P6", the favored nickname for Perl 6, and off-center eye placement is an intentional pun on "Wall-eyed".<ref name="camelia-eyes">{{cite web
 |url=https://irclog.perlgeek.de/perl6/2016-01-15#i_11894111
 |title=Larry Wall in IRC chat log
 |date=15 January 2016
 |access-date=2017-11-10
}}</ref>

One of the goals behind the lively and colorful design of the logo was to discourage misogyny in the community and for it to be an opportunity for those of "masculine persuasion" to show their sensitive side.<ref name="camelia-purpose">{{cite web
 |url=https://github.com/perl6/mu/blob/aaa173d49c8ba681628739e96ed28fdb921211ec/misc/camelia.txt#L78-L80
 |title=Archived "Logo considerations" email from Larry Wall
 |website=[[GitHub]]
 |date=24 March 2009
 |access-date=2017-11-10
}}</ref>