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The Perl & Raku Foundation

FOSDEM

Perl and Raku at FOSDEM
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The Perl and Raku communities have been part of FOSDEM for most of its history. Every year, developers from both communities travel to Brussels to share what they are working on, meet people they otherwise only know online, and welcome newcomers to the languages.

This page is the home for our FOSDEM activities. It will be extended with talk schedules, stand details and dinner registration as plans are confirmed.

Connected communities
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Perl and Raku are distinct languages with a shared origin and overlapping communities. Many of the people who build, maintain and teach one are also active in the other. The Perl and Raku Foundation supports both, and at FOSDEM we organise as a single group: the stand, the devroom and the dinner are joint activities, run by volunteers from both communities working together.

If you use Perl, Raku, or both - or you are simply curious about either - you are part of what we do at FOSDEM.

The devroom
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Perl has had a devroom at FOSDEM in many years since the early 2010s, and the rooms have a long record of being well attended and packed. From the start the programme mixed Perl 5 and Perl 6 - by 2017 roughly half the talks were about what is now Raku - so a joint Perl and Raku devroom is a continuation, not a new idea.

We have applied for a devroom again. If it is confirmed, the call for participation, schedule and speaker details will be published here.

Devroom history, most recent first:

  • 2024 - the devroom returned in person after several years, with a full Saturday of talks including updates from the Perl Steering Council.
  • 2021 - the Perl and Raku devroom ran as part of the first fully online FOSDEM, under the theme ‘Perl and Raku in a world in flux’.
  • 2019 - no room was allocated, but Perl had two speakers on the main track and the stand ran as usual.
  • 2017 and 2018 - Sunday devrooms organised from within the community, with core Perl 5 and Perl 6 developers on the same bill.
  • 2015 - Larry Wall gave a FOSDEM keynote, ‘Get Ready to Party!’, announcing that Perl 6 - later renamed Raku - would be production ready by Christmas that year.
  • 2013-2016 - Perl devrooms ran in most of these years (*estimated).
  • 2011 and 2012 - full-day devrooms covering Dancer, Mojolicious, Rakudo, Padre, DBI and more; the 2011 room had thirteen talks.
  • 2008-2010 - earliest Perl devrooms at FOSDEM (*estimated).

The stand
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The stand has been the constant. Whether or not there is a devroom, Perl - and since 2020, Perl and Raku together - has had a stand at FOSDEM for well over a decade. Stands are awarded on merit, not bought, and ours has been renewed year after year.

For most of that time the stand was run by Wendy van Dijk and Liz Mattijsen. They organised it, staffed it, brought their travelling Perl library and the Meeltje camel, and gave the Perl and Raku communities a permanent, welcoming home at FOSDEM long before there was any foundation support behind it. Much of what the stand is today is their work, and we are grateful for it.

It is where most of the conversations happen: long-time users catching up on recent developments, people who last touched Perl years ago, and those meeting Raku for the first time.

Stand history, most recent first:

  • 2026 - Building K, stand A9
  • 2025 - Building F, stand 2
  • 2023 - Building K
  • 2020 - first stand under the joint Perl and Raku name, secured on Andrew Shitov’s initiative with TPF support
  • 2011 onwards - Perl stand run by Wendy and Liz (*estimated start year)

The stand is run entirely by community volunteers. If you would like to help, even for an hour, get in touch.

The community dinner
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The Perl and Raku Foundation sponsors a community dinner on the Saturday evening of FOSDEM weekend. It is open to active community members, contributors and enthusiasts, and is a relaxed way to spend an evening with people from across both communities.

Registration is required so that we can plan numbers. Details for the next dinner will be published here when available.

*Estimated: dates marked this way are from memory and partial records; corrections welcome.