5 perldelta - what is new for perl v5.13.2
9 This document describes differences between the 5.13.2 release and
12 If you are upgrading from an earlier release such as 5.10, first read
13 L<perl5120delta>, which describes differences between 5.10 and
18 XXX Any important notices here
20 =head1 Incompatible Changes
22 XXX For a release on a stable branch, this section aspires to be:
24 There are no changes intentionally incompatible with 5.XXX.XXX. If any
25 exist, they are bugs and reports are welcome.
28 =head1 Core Enhancements
30 XXX New core language features go here. Summarise user-visible core language
31 enhancements. Particularly prominent performance optimisations could go
32 here, but most should go in the L</Performance Enhancements> section.
34 =head2 Non-destructive substitution
36 The substitution operator now supports a C</r> option that
37 copies the input variable, carries out the substitution on
38 the copy and returns the result. The original remains unmodified.
41 my $new = $old =~ s/cat/dog/r;
42 # $old is 'cat' and $new is 'dog'
44 This is particularly useful with C<map>. See L<perlop> for more examples.
46 =head2 package block syntax
48 A package declaration can now contain a code block, in which case the
49 declaration is in scope only inside that block. So C<package Foo { ... }>
50 is precisely equivalent to C<{ package Foo; ... }>. It also works with
51 a version number in the declaration, as in C<package Foo 1.2 { ... }>.
56 XXX List any platforms that this version of perl compiles on, that previous
57 versions did not. These will either be enabled by new files in the F<hints/>
58 directories, or new subdirectories and F<README> files at the top level of the
61 =head1 Modules and Pragmata
63 XXX All changes to installed files in F<cpan/>, F<dist/>, F<ext/> and F<lib/>
64 go here. If Module::CoreList is updated, generate an initial draft of the
65 following sections using F<Porting/corelist-perldelta.pl>, which prints stub
66 entries to STDOUT. Results can be pasted in place of the '=head2' entries
67 below. A paragraph summary for important changes should then be added by hand.
68 In an ideal world, dual-life modules would have a F<Changes> file that could be
71 =head2 New Modules and Pragmata
73 =head2 Pragmata Changes
75 =head2 Updated Modules
77 =head2 Removed Modules and Pragmata
79 =head1 Utility Changes
81 XXX Changes to installed programs such as F<perlbug> and F<xsubpp> go
82 here. Most of these are built within the directories F<utils> and F<x2p>.
92 =head1 New Documentation
94 XXX Changes which create B<new> files in F<pod/> go here.
104 =head1 Changes to Existing Documentation
106 XXX Changes which significantly change existing files in F<pod/> go here.
107 Any changes to F<pod/perldiag.pod> should go in L</New or Changed Diagnostics>.
110 =head1 Performance Enhancements
112 XXX Changes which enhance performance without changing behaviour go here. There
113 may well be none in a stable release.
123 =head1 Installation and Configuration Improvements
125 XXX Changes to F<Configure>, F<installperl>, F<installman>, and analogous tools
128 =head2 Configuration improvements
132 =head2 Compilation improvements
136 =head2 Platform Specific Changes
140 =item XXX-some-platform
146 =head1 Selected Bug Fixes
148 XXX Important bug fixes in the core language are summarised here.
149 Bug fixes in files in F<ext/> and F<lib/> are best summarised in
150 L</Modules and Pragmata>.
156 Overloading now works properly in conjunction with tied variables. What
157 formerly happened was that most ops checked their arguments for overloading
158 I<before> checking for magic, so for example an overloaded object returned
159 by a tied array access would usually be treated as not overloaded
164 =head1 New or Changed Diagnostics
166 XXX New or changed warnings emitted by the core's C<C> code go here.
176 =head1 Changed Internals
178 XXX Changes which affect the interface available to C<XS> code go here.
184 The following new functions or macros have been added to the public API:
185 C<SvNV_nomg>, C<sv_2nv_flags>.
191 XXX Changes which create B<new> files in F<t/> go here. Changes to
192 existing files in F<t/> aren't worth summarising, although the bugs that
193 they represent may be.
203 =head1 Known Problems
205 XXX Descriptions of platform agnostic bugs we know we can't fix go here. Any
206 tests that had to be C<TODO>ed for the release would be noted here, unless
207 they were specific to a particular platform (see below).
209 This is a list of some significant unfixed bugs, which are regressions
210 from either 5.XXX.XXX or 5.XXX.XXX.
222 XXX Add any new known deprecations here.
224 The following items are now deprecated.
234 =head1 Platform Specific Notes
236 XXX Any changes specific to a particular platform. VMS and Win32 are the usual
237 stars here. It's probably best to group changes under the same section layout
238 as the main perldelta
242 XXX If any significant core contributor has died, we've added a short obituary
245 =head1 Acknowledgements
247 XXX The list of people to thank goes here.
250 =head1 Reporting Bugs
252 If you find what you think is a bug, you might check the articles
253 recently posted to the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup and the perl
254 bug database at http://rt.perl.org/perlbug/ . There may also be
255 information at http://www.perl.org/ , the Perl Home Page.
257 If you believe you have an unreported bug, please run the B<perlbug>
258 program included with your release. Be sure to trim your bug down
259 to a tiny but sufficient test case. Your bug report, along with the
260 output of C<perl -V>, will be sent off to perlbug@perl.org to be
261 analysed by the Perl porting team.
263 If the bug you are reporting has security implications, which make it
264 inappropriate to send to a publicly archived mailing list, then please send
265 it to perl5-security-report@perl.org. This points to a closed subscription
266 unarchived mailing list, which includes all the core committers, who be able
267 to help assess the impact of issues, figure out a resolution, and help
268 co-ordinate the release of patches to mitigate or fix the problem across all
269 platforms on which Perl is supported. Please only use this address for
270 security issues in the Perl core, not for modules independently
275 The F<Changes> file for an explanation of how to view exhaustive details
278 The F<INSTALL> file for how to build Perl.
280 The F<README> file for general stuff.
282 The F<Artistic> and F<Copying> files for copyright information.