Perl and Python to begin joint development

[Armin Steinhoff]

In article <mailman.986151723.14868.python-list at python.org>, Jeremy says...
>
>[FYI:  This press release was also sent to c.l.py.a.  Dan and I expect
>to have the release schedule PEP ready soon.  And, yes, that's Parrot
>Enhancement Proposal (PEP). --jeremy]
>
>04/01/2001
>SEBASTOPOL, CA
>
>Perl and Python to begin joint development

  sounds like the joke with the chicken and the pork:

says the chicken: lets merge together for a meal ... I provide the eggs and  
you provides the bacon :)

  Have we say goodbey to GvR ??

  Armin





>
>Larry Wall, the creator of Perl, and Guido van Rossum, creator of
>Python, today announced that their respective projects are about to
>begin a period of joint development. 
>
>According to the language designers, the idea surfaced at last year's
>Open Source Convention - "We at the Perl Conference were aware of a need
>for a new direction for Perl and for its community, and that's why we
>announced the work on Perl 6," said an excited Wall. "At the same time,
>Guido was thinking very hard about Python 2.0 and where it was going,
>and we got together and started talking about helping each other out."
>
>Initially, the pair planned to have their development communities
>working together for mutual benefit. van Rossum cited some of the
>technical reasons for the collaboration: "Perl's highly powerful regular
>expression engine would be integrated into Python, and would benefit us
>greatly; in return, we've got a number of things right that Perl could
>gain from, such as signal handling and robust software engineering."
>
>However, as both designers talked about the changes their languages were
>going through, they came to the conclusion that they had much to share
>at the language level as well as the interpreter level. According to
>Larry Wall, "Perl's always been about taking the best features of all
>the other languages available; it's perfectly natural for us to
>integrate the best features of Python too."
>
>The specifications for the combined language, called Parrot, will be
>documented in the forthcoming book "Programming Parrot In A Nutshell",
>to be published by O'Reilly and Associates. In the meantime, the Python
>Software Foundation is said to be making arrangements to merge with Yet
>Another Society. YAS president Kevin Lenzo was delighted at the move:
>"It's a natural extension of what YAS was set up to facilitate -
>collaboration and communication between programming communities."
>
>Parrot development will begin with the merger of the Py3K development
>team with the Perl 6 internals working group; Jeremy Hylton and Dan
>Sugalski will be the joint development leads.
>
>Larry Wall and Guido van Rossum both accepted positions at the Vancouver,
>Canada development company ActiveState. A spokesman for ActiveState said
>that the company was obviously very pleased with the decision, but
>denied that ActiveState had influenced it in any way.
>