It might be gone from Perl 6, but the idea of dividing all possible types into two different classes, and then using punctuation to distinguish variables holding those two classes, is from Perl 5, just like the idea of functions caring about the context of their return value.<p>If Perl 6 is an entirely new language, then why is it riddled with so many bad ideas from another language that only coincidentally shares the first 4 alphabetic characters of its name?<p>Why the artificial scalar&#x2F;array dichotomy? What is it that is so important about being able to distinguish variables holding scalar-like values and array-like values by punctuation, but it doesn&#x27;t matter that you can&#x27;t distinguish variables holding strings and integers by their punctuation?<p>And how can you be consistent about types that act like both scalars and arrays, like strings? Or user defined types that might behave like scalars or arrays but are represented by objects? Are those treated as arrays? Or are they references, treated as scalars?<p>Scalar -vs- array is a false dichotomy that&#x27;s deeply and unnecessarily embedded in the very syntax of the language.