I think more specifically it was the hesitance to move Perl 5 significantly forward in the meantime that caused the damage. That has been decidedly changed the last few years, with great strides being made. That time in between is lost, though.
This is the key - you need to cannibalize from the "new" for the "old" if you're making a grandiose change with no set release date. Perl 5 continuing to get some "back ported" improvements from Perl 6 would have kept it alive for quite a lot longer.
You run the risk of killing the new in the cradle, though, and often that scares people.
from __future__ import coolshit
> For what seemed like "Duke Nukem Forever" time
Fun fact: The amount of time it took Perl 6 to come out after being announced was actually longer than the amount of time it took Duke Nukem Forever to come out after being announced
Re:What Killed Perl?
by michaelcampbell on Saturday November 22, 2025 @10:29AM
(#46015478)
hah! How about "Star Citizen", then?
The insane lead time of Perl 6 to even get to a point of backwards incompatibility was it for me.
I'd started on an early version of perl 4 and went through the 5 transition and was excited about 6. For what seemed like "Duke Nukem Forever" time, and finally my fickleness drew me to other languages and frameworks.