add version number format note to perldelta

[p5sagit/p5-mst-13.2.git] / pod / perl5114delta.pod

=head1 NAME

perldelta - what is new for perl v5.11.4

=head1 DESCRIPTION

This document describes differences between the 5.11.3 release and
the 5.11.4 release.

If you are upgrading from an earlier release such as 5.11.2, first read
L<perl5113delta>, which describes differences between 5.11.2 and
5.11.3.

=head1 Notice

XXX Any important notices here

=head1 Incompatible Changes

XXX For a release on a stable branch, this section aspires to be:

    There are no changes intentionally incompatible with 5.XXX.XXX. If any
    exist, they are bugs and reports are welcome.

=head2 Version number formats

Acceptable version number formats have been formalized into "strict" and
"lax" rules.  C<package NAME VERSION> takes a strict version number.  C<use
NAME VERSION> takes a lax version number.  C<UNIVERSAL::VERSION> and the
L<version> object constructors take lax version numbers.  Providing an
invalid version will result in a fatal error.

These formats will be documented fully in the L<version> module in a
subsequent release of Perl 5.11.  To a first approximation, a "strict"
version number is a positive decimal number (integer or decimal-fraction)
without exponentiation or else a dotted-decimal v-string with a leading 'v'
character and at least three components.  A "lax" version number allows
v-strings with fewer than three components or without a leading 'v'.  Under
"lax" rules, both decimal and dotted-decimal versions may have a trailing
"alpha" component separated by an underscore character after a fractional
or dotted-decimal component.

The L<version> module adds C<version::is_strict> and C<version::is_lax>
functions to check a scalar against these rules.

=head1 Core Enhancements

XXX New core language features go here. Summarise user-visible core language
enhancements. Particularly prominent performance optimisations could go
here, but most should go in the L</Performance Enhancements> section.

=head2 Unicode properties

C<\p{XDigit}> now matches the same characters as C<\p{Hex_Digit}>.  This
means that in addition to the characters it currently matches,
C<[A-Fa-f0-9]>, it will also match their fullwidth equivalent forms, for
example U+FF10: FULLWIDTH DIGIT ZERO.

=head1 New Platforms

XXX List any platforms that this version of perl compiles on, that previous
versions did not. These will either be enabled by new files in the F<hints/>
directories, or new subdirectories and F<README> files at the top level of the
source tree.

=head1 Modules and Pragmata

XXX All changes to installed files in F<cpan/>, F<dist/>, F<ext/> and F<lib/>
go here.  If Module::CoreList is updated, generate an initial draft of the
following sections using F<Porting/corelist-perldelta.pl>, which prints stub
entries to STDOUT.  Results can be pasted in place of the '=head2' entries
below.  A paragraph summary for important changes should then be added by hand.
In an ideal world, dual-life modules would have a F<Changes> file that could be
cribbed.

=head2 New Modules and Pragmata

=head2 Pragmata Changes

=head2 Updated Modules

=head2 Removed Modules and Pragmata

=head1 Utility Changes

XXX Changes to installed programs such as F<perlbug> and F<xsubpp> go
here. Most of these are built within the directories F<utils> and F<x2p>.

=over 4

=item F<XXX>

XXX

=back

=head1 New Documentation

XXX Changes which create B<new> files in F<pod/> go here.

=over 4

=item L<XXX>

XXX

=back

=head1 Changes to Existing Documentation

XXX Changes which significantly change existing files in F<pod/> go here.
Any changes to F<pod/perldiag.pod> should go in L</New or Changed Diagnostics>.


=head1 Performance Enhancements

XXX Changes which enhance performance without changing behaviour go here. There
may well be none in a stable release.

=over 4

=item *

XXX

=back

=head1 Installation and Configuration Improvements

XXX Changes to F<Configure>, F<installperl>, F<installman>, and analogous tools
go here.

=head2 Configuration improvements

XXX

=head2 Compilation improvements

XXX

=head2 Platform Specific Changes

=over 4

=item XXX-some-platform

XXX

=back

=head1 Selected Bug Fixes

XXX Important bug fixes in the core language are summarised here.
Bug fixes in files in F<ext/> and F<lib/> are best summarised in
L</Modules and Pragmata>.

=over 4

=item *

XXX

=back

=head1 New or Changed Diagnostics

=over 4

=item New warning category C<illegalproto>

The two warnings :

  Illegal character in prototype for %s : %s
  Prototype after '%c' for %s : %s

have been moved from the C<syntax> top-level warnings category into a new
first-level category, C<illegalproto>. These two warnings are currently the
only ones emitted during parsing of an invalid/illegal prototype, so one
can now do

  no warnings 'illegalproto';

to suppress only those, but not other syntax-related warnings. Warnings where
prototypes are changed, ignored, or not met are still in the C<prototype>
category as before. (Matt S. Trout)

=item lvalue attribute ignored after the subroutine has been defined

This new warning is issued when one attempts to mark a subroutine as
lvalue after it has been defined.

=back

=head1 Changed Internals

XXX Changes which affect the interface available to C<XS> code go here.

=over 4

=item *

XXX

=back

=head1 New Tests

XXX Changes which create B<new> files in F<t/> go here. Changes to
existing files in F<t/> aren't worth summarising, although the bugs that
they represent may be.

=over 4

=item F<XXX>

XXX

=back

=head1 Known Problems

XXX Descriptions of platform agnostic bugs we know we can't fix go here. Any
tests that had to be C<TODO>ed for the release would be noted here, unless
they were specific to a particular platform (see below).

This is a list of some significant unfixed bugs, which are regressions
from either 5.XXX.XXX or 5.XXX.XXX.

=over 4

=item *

XXX

=back

=head1 Deprecations

The following items are now deprecated.

=over 4

=item C<< UNIVERSAL-E<gt>import() >>

The method C<< UNIVERSAL-E<gt>import() >> is now deprecated.
Attempting to pass import arguments to a C<use UNIVERSAL>
statement will result in a deprecation warning. (This is
a less noisy version of the full deprecation warning
added in 5.11.0.)

=back

=head1 Platform Specific Notes

XXX Any changes specific to a particular platform. VMS and Win32 are the usual
stars here. It's probably best to group changes under the same section layout
as the main perldelta

=head1 Obituary

XXX If any significant core contributor has died, we've added a short obituary
here.

=head1 Acknowledgements

XXX The list of people to thank goes here.


=head1 Reporting Bugs

If you find what you think is a bug, you might check the articles
recently posted to the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup and the perl
bug database at http://rt.perl.org/perlbug/ .  There may also be
information at http://www.perl.org/ , the Perl Home Page.

If you believe you have an unreported bug, please run the B<perlbug>
program included with your release.  Be sure to trim your bug down
to a tiny but sufficient test case.  Your bug report, along with the
output of C<perl -V>, will be sent off to perlbug@perl.org to be
analysed by the Perl porting team.

If the bug you are reporting has security implications, which make it
inappropriate to send to a publicly archived mailing list, then please send
it to perl5-security-report@perl.org. This points to a closed subscription
unarchived mailing list, which includes all the core committers, who be able
to help assess the impact of issues, figure out a resolution, and help
co-ordinate the release of patches to mitigate or fix the problem across all
platforms on which Perl is supported. Please only use this address for
security issues in the Perl core, not for modules independently
distributed on CPAN.

=head1 SEE ALSO

The F<Changes> file for an explanation of how to view exhaustive details
on what changed.

The F<INSTALL> file for how to build Perl.

The F<README> file for general stuff.

The F<Artistic> and F<Copying> files for copyright information.

=cut