What is raku?

Raku is a modern programming language that grew out of Perl 6. It’s designed to be expressive, flexible, and powerful, letting developers write code that is both concise and readable. Think of it as a newer sibling of Perl, with many improvements and a fresh syntax.

Let's break it down

  • Syntax: Raku uses a clean, English‑like syntax (e.g., “say” to print, “if” for conditions).
  • Objects: Everything is an object, which makes it easy to extend and customize behavior.
  • Concurrency: Built‑in support for asynchronous programming, threads, and reactive streams.
  • Type system: Optional typing lets you add type hints for safety without losing flexibility.
  • Grammar: Raku has powerful parsing tools, allowing you to define custom languages or data formats directly in the code.

Why does it matter?

Raku shows how a language can evolve while keeping the spirit of its predecessor. It introduces modern concepts (like promises and reactive programming) in a way that’s approachable for beginners, while still offering depth for advanced users. Learning Raku can broaden your understanding of language design and improve your ability to write clean, maintainable code.

Where is it used?

  • Scripting: Quick automation tasks, file processing, and system administration.
  • Web development: Frameworks like Cro let you build high‑performance web services.
  • Data transformation: Its grammar engine is great for parsing logs, CSVs, or custom file formats.
  • Education: Used in programming courses to illustrate concepts such as grammars, concurrency, and meta‑programming.
  • Research & prototyping: Scientists and hobbyists use Raku to prototype algorithms because of its expressive syntax.

Good things about it

  • Very readable and expressive syntax, friendly for beginners.
  • Powerful built‑in features (concurrency, grammars, lazy lists) reduce the need for external libraries.
  • Strong community that values documentation and learning resources.
  • Flexible type system: you can start without types and add them later for safety.
  • Consistent object model makes extending the language straightforward.

Not-so-good things

  • Smaller ecosystem compared to languages like Python or JavaScript; fewer third‑party libraries.
  • Performance can be slower for raw compute‑heavy tasks unless optimized.
  • Learning curve for advanced features (e.g., custom grammars, meta‑programming) can be steep.
  • Tooling (IDE support, debuggers) is improving but still not as mature as more popular languages.
  • Community, while passionate, is relatively niche, so finding help may sometimes be harder.