3 perldelta - what is new for perl v5.11.4
7 This document describes differences between the 5.11.3 release and
10 If you are upgrading from an earlier release such as 5.11.2, first read
11 L<perl5113delta>, which describes differences between 5.11.2 and
16 XXX Any important notices here
18 =head1 Incompatible Changes
20 XXX For a release on a stable branch, this section aspires to be:
22 There are no changes intentionally incompatible with 5.XXX.XXX. If any
23 exist, they are bugs and reports are welcome.
25 =head2 Version number formats
27 Acceptable version number formats have been formalized into "strict" and
28 "lax" rules. C<package NAME VERSION> takes a strict version number. C<use
29 NAME VERSION> takes a lax version number. C<UNIVERSAL::VERSION> and the
30 L<version> object constructors take lax version numbers. Providing an
31 invalid version will result in a fatal error.
33 These formats will be documented fully in the L<version> module in a
34 subsequent release of Perl 5.11. To a first approximation, a "strict"
35 version number is a positive decimal number (integer or decimal-fraction)
36 without exponentiation or else a dotted-decimal v-string with a leading 'v'
37 character and at least three components. A "lax" version number allows
38 v-strings with fewer than three components or without a leading 'v'. Under
39 "lax" rules, both decimal and dotted-decimal versions may have a trailing
40 "alpha" component separated by an underscore character after a fractional
41 or dotted-decimal component.
43 The L<version> module adds C<version::is_strict> and C<version::is_lax>
44 functions to check a scalar against these rules.
46 =head1 Core Enhancements
48 XXX New core language features go here. Summarise user-visible core language
49 enhancements. Particularly prominent performance optimisations could go
50 here, but most should go in the L</Performance Enhancements> section.
52 =head2 Unicode properties
54 C<\p{XDigit}> now matches the same characters as C<\p{Hex_Digit}>. This
55 means that in addition to the characters it currently matches,
56 C<[A-Fa-f0-9]>, it will also match their fullwidth equivalent forms, for
57 example U+FF10: FULLWIDTH DIGIT ZERO.
61 XXX List any platforms that this version of perl compiles on, that previous
62 versions did not. These will either be enabled by new files in the F<hints/>
63 directories, or new subdirectories and F<README> files at the top level of the
66 =head1 Modules and Pragmata
68 XXX All changes to installed files in F<cpan/>, F<dist/>, F<ext/> and F<lib/>
69 go here. If Module::CoreList is updated, generate an initial draft of the
70 following sections using F<Porting/corelist-perldelta.pl>, which prints stub
71 entries to STDOUT. Results can be pasted in place of the '=head2' entries
72 below. A paragraph summary for important changes should then be added by hand.
73 In an ideal world, dual-life modules would have a F<Changes> file that could be
76 =head2 New Modules and Pragmata
78 =head2 Pragmata Changes
80 =head2 Updated Modules
82 =head2 Removed Modules and Pragmata
84 =head1 Utility Changes
86 XXX Changes to installed programs such as F<perlbug> and F<xsubpp> go
87 here. Most of these are built within the directories F<utils> and F<x2p>.
97 =head1 New Documentation
99 XXX Changes which create B<new> files in F<pod/> go here.
109 =head1 Changes to Existing Documentation
111 XXX Changes which significantly change existing files in F<pod/> go here.
112 Any changes to F<pod/perldiag.pod> should go in L</New or Changed Diagnostics>.
115 =head1 Performance Enhancements
117 XXX Changes which enhance performance without changing behaviour go here. There
118 may well be none in a stable release.
128 =head1 Installation and Configuration Improvements
130 XXX Changes to F<Configure>, F<installperl>, F<installman>, and analogous tools
133 =head2 Configuration improvements
137 =head2 Compilation improvements
141 =head2 Platform Specific Changes
145 =item XXX-some-platform
151 =head1 Selected Bug Fixes
153 XXX Important bug fixes in the core language are summarised here.
154 Bug fixes in files in F<ext/> and F<lib/> are best summarised in
155 L</Modules and Pragmata>.
165 =head1 New or Changed Diagnostics
169 =item New warning category C<illegalproto>
173 Illegal character in prototype for %s : %s
174 Prototype after '%c' for %s : %s
176 have been moved from the C<syntax> top-level warnings category into a new
177 first-level category, C<illegalproto>. These two warnings are currently the
178 only ones emitted during parsing of an invalid/illegal prototype, so one
181 no warnings 'illegalproto';
183 to suppress only those, but not other syntax-related warnings. Warnings where
184 prototypes are changed, ignored, or not met are still in the C<prototype>
185 category as before. (Matt S. Trout)
187 =item lvalue attribute ignored after the subroutine has been defined
189 This new warning is issued when one attempts to mark a subroutine as
190 lvalue after it has been defined.
194 =head1 Changed Internals
196 XXX Changes which affect the interface available to C<XS> code go here.
208 XXX Changes which create B<new> files in F<t/> go here. Changes to
209 existing files in F<t/> aren't worth summarising, although the bugs that
210 they represent may be.
220 =head1 Known Problems
222 XXX Descriptions of platform agnostic bugs we know we can't fix go here. Any
223 tests that had to be C<TODO>ed for the release would be noted here, unless
224 they were specific to a particular platform (see below).
226 This is a list of some significant unfixed bugs, which are regressions
227 from either 5.XXX.XXX or 5.XXX.XXX.
239 The following items are now deprecated.
243 =item C<< UNIVERSAL-E<gt>import() >>
245 The method C<< UNIVERSAL-E<gt>import() >> is now deprecated.
246 Attempting to pass import arguments to a C<use UNIVERSAL>
247 statement will result in a deprecation warning. (This is
248 a less noisy version of the full deprecation warning
253 =head1 Platform Specific Notes
255 XXX Any changes specific to a particular platform. VMS and Win32 are the usual
256 stars here. It's probably best to group changes under the same section layout
257 as the main perldelta
261 XXX If any significant core contributor has died, we've added a short obituary
264 =head1 Acknowledgements
266 XXX The list of people to thank goes here.
269 =head1 Reporting Bugs
271 If you find what you think is a bug, you might check the articles
272 recently posted to the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup and the perl
273 bug database at http://rt.perl.org/perlbug/ . There may also be
274 information at http://www.perl.org/ , the Perl Home Page.
276 If you believe you have an unreported bug, please run the B<perlbug>
277 program included with your release. Be sure to trim your bug down
278 to a tiny but sufficient test case. Your bug report, along with the
279 output of C<perl -V>, will be sent off to perlbug@perl.org to be
280 analysed by the Perl porting team.
282 If the bug you are reporting has security implications, which make it
283 inappropriate to send to a publicly archived mailing list, then please send
284 it to perl5-security-report@perl.org. This points to a closed subscription
285 unarchived mailing list, which includes all the core committers, who be able
286 to help assess the impact of issues, figure out a resolution, and help
287 co-ordinate the release of patches to mitigate or fix the problem across all
288 platforms on which Perl is supported. Please only use this address for
289 security issues in the Perl core, not for modules independently
294 The F<Changes> file for an explanation of how to view exhaustive details
297 The F<INSTALL> file for how to build Perl.
299 The F<README> file for general stuff.
301 The F<Artistic> and F<Copying> files for copyright information.