The Perl 6 project is suffering severely due to Larry Wall's protracted illness. Parrot is slogging along through subdecimals and the Perl 6 language project has turned into what looks very much like a deathmarch. This summer the project will be 4 years old and Still Not Shipping. Perl 4 is turning into The Great American Programming Language - a mythical programming substrate, immensely powerful and so full of right and bright ideas that it is downright scary. But mainly mythical.

The project makes it abundantly clear how impossible pure peerage is. In any group somebody ends up asserting leadership and are consequently missed dearly when not available. No amount of community feeling or symbolic abdication can change that. Let's hope Wall gets well soon.