When Perl gained the ability to support custom keywords provided by modules it started down the path that CPAN modules would experiment with new language ideas. Already a number of such modules exist, and it is likely this idea will continue to develop. What new ideas might turn up in the next few years, and will any of them evolve to become parts of the actual core language?
Already we have real exception-handling try/catch syntax provided by Syntax::Keyword::Try, asynchronous code flow async/await by Future::AsyncAwait, and a still-experimental object system in Object::Pad. There are still many other commonly-requested or discussed features such as some sort of conditional case matching, multiple dispatch of functions or methods, or ideas around type assertions that could be applied by keywords as well.
At the same time, as these existing modules continue to provide useful semantics and gain more acceptance across CPAN authors and the wider community, we can begin to look at whether they can somehow be migrated into the core language entirely, becoming a true native part of Perl syntax.
Speakers: Paul Evans