Intro - Chapter: 0:History 1:Design 2:Basics 3:Var 4:Op 5:IO 6:Block 7:Sub 8:OOP 9:Rx 10:Meta
Overview - Appendix: A:Index B:Tables C:Cook D:Delta E:Best of F:Links G:Glossary

This is a small tour, showing the best features and improvements of Perl 6 in short examples, compared to similar working Perl 5 examples.

Command Line

Making output will become simpler and easier for newbies.

               Perl 5                                     Perl 6 
 print "bananas are good\n";                     say "bananas are good";
 print "and I said: $quotes{\"me\"}\n";          say "and I said: %quotes{"me"}.";
 print "and I said: $quotes{\"me\"}\n";          say "and I said: %quotes<me>.";
 print "What is ... ";                           $result = prompt "What is ... ";
 chomp($result = <>);

File IO

File::Slurp is in the Perl 6 core language and file reading is simpler then ever (and autochomp included).

               Perl 5                                     Perl 6 
 $content = do { local $/;                       $content = slurp "poetry.txt";
    open my $FH, "poetry.txt"; <$FH>
 };

chomp(@content = do {                            @content = lines "poetry.txt";
    open my $FH, "poetry.txt"; <$FH>
});

Automatic multithreading

Applying operations to junctions and arrays is now syntactically compact and readable. Perl 6 will create threads where appropriate to use multiple processors, cores or hyperthreading for high level language SIMD concurrent processing.

               Perl 5                                     Perl 6 
 my $sum;                                        my $sum = [+] @numbers;
 $sum += $_ for @numbers;
 for (0 .. $#factor1) {                          @product = @factor1 >>*<< @factor2;
   $product[$] = $factor1[$] * $factor2[$_];
 }

The Perl 5 code is a simplification, of course Perl6 "does the right thing" when the arrays have different lengths.

Comparison

Here are junctions, then chained comparison operators.

               Perl 5                                     Perl 6 
 if ($a == 3 or $a == 4 or $a == 7) {...}        if $a = 3 | 4 | 7 {...}
 if (4 < $a and $a < 12) {...}                   if 4 < $a < 12 {...} 
 if (4 < $a and $a <= 12) {...}                  if $a ~~ 4^..12 {...}
 $a = defined $b ? $b : $c;                      $a = $b // $c;

The defined-OR operator eases lot of cases where Perl 5 newbies could fall into traps.

Case construct

               Perl 5                                      Perl 6 
                                                     given $a {
 if ($a == 2 or $a == 5) {...} }}                      when 2 | 5 {...}
 elsif ($a == 6 or $a == 7 or $a == 8 or $a == 9) {}   when 6 .. 9 {...} 
 elsif ($a =~ /g/) {...}                               when 'g' {...}
 else {...}                                            default {...}
                                                     }

That new construct (backported to 5.10) is clear to read, very versatile and when used in combination with junctions, becomes even clearer.

Powerful for loops

List iteration via for is now much more versatile.

               Perl 5                                     Perl 6 
 for my $i (0..15) {...}                         for ^16 -> $i {...}
 for (my $i=15; $i>1; $i-2) {...}                for 15,*-2...1 -> $i {...}
 for my $key (keys %hash) {                      for %hash.kv -> $key, $value {
   print "$key => $hash{$key}\n"; ...              say "$key => $value"; ...
 for my $i (0..$#a) {                            for zip(@a; @b; @c) -> $a, $b, $c {...}
   my $a = @a[$i];
   my $b = @b[$i];
   my $c = @c[$i]; ... 

Named parameters in subroutines

               Perl 5                                     Perl 6 
 sub routine {                                   sub routine ($a, $b, *@rest) {...}
   my $a = shift;
   my $b = shift;
   my @rest = @_;
 }

Objects with auto generated new and getters and setters

Simple Object creation is now as easy as it gets.

               Perl 5                                     Perl 6 
 package Heart::Gold;                            class Heart::Gold {
                                                   has $.speed;
 sub new {                                         method stop { $.speed = 0 }      
   bless {speed => 0 }, shift;                   }  
 }                                               
                                                 my Heart::Gold $hg1 .= new;
 sub speed {                                     $hg1.speed = 100;
   my $self = shift;                             my $hg2 = $hg1.clone;
   my $speed = shift;
   if (defined $speed) { $self->{speed} = $speed }
   else { $self->{speed} }
 }

 sub stop {
   my $self = shift; 
   $self->{speed} = 0;
 }

The new, getter, setter and clone methods are auto generated. Methods now are called "method".

Intro - Chapter: 0:History 1:Design 2:Basics 3:Var 4:Op 5:IO 6:Block 7:Sub 8:OOP 9:Rx 10:Meta
Overview - Appendix: A:Index B:Tables C:Cook D:Delta E:Best of F:Links G:Glossary