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I have the opportunity to take a two day class on Perl 6 with the Rakudo compiler.
I don't want to start a religious war, but is it worth my time? Is there any reason to believe that Perl 6 will be practical in the real world within the next two years? Does anyone currently use it effectively?
Update
I took the class and learned a lot. However, after day 1, my mind was a bit overwhelmed. There are tons of cool ideas in Perl 6, and it will be neat to see what filters up to other languages.
Overall the experience was a positive use of my time, though I wasn't able to absorb as much on the second day. If it were a three day class it would have been unproductive just because there is a limit to how much you can process in a short amount of time.
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You don't have to use it, but it is a very powerful feature so it is definitely worth learning.
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.
The language is clean, consistent, and most of all: extremely practical. There is a function for everything and the code you write is usually very concise, yet quite readable. Grammars are a true OP feature for a hobby language designer like me.
Is Perl difficult to learn? No, Perl is easy to start learning --and easy to keep learning. It looks like most programming languages you're likely to have experience with, so if you've ever written a C program, an awk script, a shell script, or even a BASIC program, you're already partway there.
If I had a training opportunity like this, I'd take it. Even if it was COBOL.
I look at training opportunities as not only an opportunity to learn the highlight technology, but as an opportunity to learn new ideas, concepts, platforms, language (just to see how something else was implemented) and finally, to meet new people.
I think that any training is likely worth my time. Especially if the cost is going to be covered. In a training class, you'll often learn (or relearn) material that could be applied in your language of choice.
Note: It's probably worth me noting that I take a very academic look at software development and programming languages.
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