&gt; Think of Perl5 and Perl6 as American English and British English<p>This is a bit pedantic, but I think a better analogy might be Dutch and German - similar roots, but where fluency in one doesn&#x27;t confer fluency in the other.<p>Granted, I haven&#x27;t touched Perl 6 so the magnitude of difference I&#x27;m estimating is based off of a very superficial impression.<p>Python 2 &amp; 3 might be somewhat akin to American &amp; British English.<p>&gt; It almost surely would have been better for Perl5 if Perl6 hadn&#x27;t had &#x27;Perl&#x27; in its name<p>Agreed. From a distance, there&#x27;s definitely the sense that Perl5 was sacrificed for the benefit of Perl6.