[donaldc]

Perl (especially Perl 6, if/when it reaches completion) and Python fill very different temperamental niches. They have profoundly different takes on programming, despite their similarities in terms of both being high-level, interpreted languages. So it seems likely that both will be around for a good long while.

If many languages start using Parrot as a VM, it will moderate the current "rich get richer" dynamic of programming language competition. A language leading in the module race will no longer have such a huge advantage. This will help Perl 6 immensely, of course, since it will start out with very few Perl 6 modules. They'll need to get the Perl 5 CPAN modules working on Parrot to compensate, and it is a happy side-effect that this will make these same modules usable by any other languages running on Parrot.

Also, a point the article doesn't mention is that Perl 6 itself is designed to be a mutable language. Going one step beyond the article, why implement a whole new language at all, just to add/try out a new concept? It may be simpler to instead modify the Perl 6 parser (written in Perl 6 of course) to add your new concept to the syntax and semantics of Perl 6.

I love the idea. I just hope there's actually a ready-for-production implementation of Perl 6 running on top of Parrot at some point.