3 perltodo - Perl TO-DO List
7 This is a list of wishes for Perl. Send updates to
8 I<perl5-porters@perl.org>. If you want to work on any of these
9 projects, be sure to check the perl5-porters archives for past ideas,
10 flames, and propaganda. This will save you time and also prevent you
11 from implementing something that Larry has already vetoed. One set
12 of archives may be found at:
14 http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/
16 =head1 To do during 5.6.x
18 =head2 Support for I/O disciplines
20 C<perlio> provides this, but the interface could be a lot more
23 =head2 Autoload bytes.pm
25 When the lexer sees, for instance, C<bytes::length>, it should
26 automatically load the C<bytes> pragma.
28 =head2 Make "\u{XXXX}" et al work
30 Danger, Will Robinson! Discussing the semantics of C<"\x{F00}">,
31 C<"\xF00"> and C<"\U{F00}"> on P5P I<will> lead to a long and boring
34 =head2 Create a char *sv_pvprintify(sv, STRLEN *lenp, UV flags)
36 For displaying PVs with control characters, embedded nulls, and Unicode.
37 This would be useful for printing warnings, or data and regex dumping,
38 not_a_number(), and so on.
40 Requirements: should handle both byte and UTF8 strings. isPRINT()
41 characters printed as-is, character less than 256 as \xHH, Unicode
42 characters as \x{HHH}. Don't assume ASCII-like, either, get somebody
43 on EBCDIC to test the output.
45 Possible options, controlled by the flags:
46 - whitespace (other than ' ' of isPRINT()) printed as-is
47 - use isPRINT_LC() instead of isPRINT()
48 - print control characters like this: "\cA"
49 - print control characters like this: "^A"
50 - non-PRINTables printed as '.' instead of \xHH
51 - use \OOO instead of \xHH
52 - use the C/Perl-metacharacters like \n, \t
53 - have a maximum length for the produced string (read it from *lenp)
54 - append a "..." to the produced string if the maximum length is exceeded
55 - really fancy: print unicode characters as \N{...}
57 NOTE: pv_display(), pv_uni_display(), sv_uni_display() are already
58 doing something like the above.
60 =head2 Overloadable regex assertions
62 This may or may not be possible with the current regular expression
63 engine. The idea is that, for instance, C<\b> needs to be
64 algorithmically computed if you're dealing with Thai text. Hence, the
65 B<\b> assertion wants to be overloaded by a function.
73 Allow for long form of the General Category Properties, e.g
74 C<\p{IsOpenPunctuation}>, not just the abbreviated form, e.g.
79 Allow for the metaproperties: C<XID Start>, C<XID Continue>,
80 C<NF*_NO>, C<NF*_MAYBE> (require the DerivedCoreProperties and
81 DerviceNormalizationProperties files).
83 There are also multiple value properties still unimplemented:
84 C<Numeric Type>, C<East Asian Width>.
88 Case Mappings? http://www.unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr21/
90 lc(), uc(), lcfirst(), and ucfirst() work only for some of the
91 simplest cases, where the mapping goes from a single Unicode character
92 to another single Unicode character. See lib/unicore/SpecCase.txt
97 UTF-8 identifier names should probably be canonicalized: NFC?
101 UTF-8 in package names and sub names? The first is problematic
102 because of the mapping to pathnames, ditto for the second one if
103 one does autosplitting, for example.
107 See L<perlunicode/UNICODE REGULAR EXPRESSION SUPPORT LEVEL> for what's
108 there and what's missing. Almost all of Levels 2 and 3 is missing,
109 and as of 5.8.0 not even all of Level 1 is there.
110 They have some tricks Perl doesn't yet implement, such as character
113 http://www.unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr18/
115 =head2 Work out exit/die semantics for threads
117 There are some suggestions to use for example something like this:
118 default to "(thread exiting first will) wait for the other threads
119 until up to 60 seconds". Other possibilities:
121 use threads wait => 0;
125 use threads wait_for => 10;
127 Wait up to 10 seconds.
129 use threads wait_for => -1;
133 http://archive.develooper.com/perl5-porters@perl.org/msg79618.html
135 =head2 Better support for nonpreemptive threading systems like PTH
137 Perhaps do yield() before blocking calls, exchange calls to non blocking
138 calls specific for those libraries (for example GNUpth has a pth_sleep
139 which is a non pth aware version of sleep).
141 =head2 Typed lexicals for compiler
143 =head2 Compiler workarounds for Win32
145 =head2 AUTOLOADing in the compiler
147 =head2 Fixing comppadlist when compiling
149 =head2 Cleaning up exported namespace
151 =head2 Complete signal handling
153 Add C<PERL_ASYNC_CHECK> to opcodes which loop; replace C<sigsetjmp> with
154 C<sigjmp>; check C<wait> for signal safety.
156 =head2 Out-of-source builds
158 This was done for 5.6.0, but needs reworking for 5.7.x
160 =head2 POSIX realtime support
162 POSIX 1003.1 1996 Edition support--realtime stuff: POSIX semaphores,
163 message queues, shared memory, realtime clocks, timers, signals (the
164 metaconfig units mostly already exist for these)
166 =head2 UNIX98 support
168 Reader-writer locks, realtime/asynchronous IO
172 There are non-core modules, such as C<Socket6>, but these will need
173 integrating when IPv6 actually starts to really happen. See RFC 2292
176 =head2 Long double conversion
178 Floating point formatting is still causing some weird test failures.
182 Locales and Unicode interact with each other in unpleasant ways.
183 One possible solution would be to adopt/support ICU:
185 http://oss.software.ibm.com/developerworks/opensource/icu/project/
187 =head2 Arithmetic on non-Arabic numerals
189 C<[1234567890]> aren't the only numerals any more.
191 =head2 POSIX Unicode character classes
193 (C<[=a=]> for equivalence classes, C<[.ch.]> for collation.)
194 These are dependent on Unicode normalization and collation.
196 =head2 Factoring out common suffices/prefices in regexps (trie optimization)
198 Currently, the user has to optimize C<foo|far> and C<foo|goo> into
199 C<f(?:oo|ar)> and C<[fg]oo> by hand; this could be done automatically.
201 =head2 Security audit shipped utilities
203 All the code we ship with Perl needs to be sensible about temporary file
204 handling, locking, input validation, and so on.
206 =head2 Sort out the uid-setting mess
208 Currently there are several problems with the setting of uids ($<, $>
209 for the real and effective uids). Firstly, what exactly setuid() call
210 gets invoked in which platform is simply a big mess that needs to be
211 untangled. Secondly, the effects are apparently not standard across
212 platforms, (if you first set $< and then $>, or vice versa, being
213 uid == euid == zero, or just euid == zero, or as a normal user, what are
214 the results?). The test suite not (usually) being run as root means
215 that these things do not get much testing. Thirdly, there's quite
216 often a third uid called saved uid, and Perl has no knowledge of that
217 feature in any way. (If one has the saved uid of zero, one can get
218 back any real and effective uids.) As an example, to change also the
219 saved uid, one needs to set the real and effective uids B<twice>-- in
220 most systems, that is: in HP-UX that doesn't seem to work.
222 =head2 Custom opcodes
224 Have a way to introduce user-defined opcodes without the subroutine call
225 overhead of an XSUB; the user should be able to create PP code. Simon
226 Cozens has some ideas on this.
228 =head2 DLL Versioning
230 Windows needs a way to know what version of an XS or C<libperl> DLL it's
233 =head2 Introduce @( and @)
235 C<$(> may return "foo bar baz". Unfortunately, since groups can
236 theoretically have spaces in their names, this could be one, two or
239 =head2 Floating point handling
241 C<NaN> and C<inf> support is particularly troublesome.
242 (fp_classify(), fp_class(), fp_class_d(), class(), isinf(),
243 isfinite(), finite(), isnormal(), unordered(), <ieeefp.h>,
244 <fp_class.h> (there are metaconfig units for all these) (I think),
245 fp_setmask(), fp_getmask(), fp_setround(), fp_getround()
246 (no metaconfig units yet for these). Don't forget finitel(), fp_classl(),
247 fp_class_l(), (yes, both do, unfortunately, exist), and unorderedl().)
249 As of Perl 5.6.1, there is a Perl macro, Perl_isnan().
251 =head2 IV/UV preservation
253 Nicholas Clark has done a lot of work on this, but work is continuing.
254 C<+>, C<-> and C<*> work, but guards need to be in place for C<%>, C</>,
255 C<&>, C<oct>, C<hex> and C<pack>.
257 =head2 Replace pod2html with something using Pod::Parser
259 The CPAN module C<Marek::Pod::Html> may be a more suitable basis for a
260 C<pod2html> converter; the current one duplicates the functionality
261 abstracted in C<Pod::Parser>, which makes updating the POD language
264 =head2 Automate module testing on CPAN
266 When a new Perl is being beta tested, porters have to manually grab
267 their favourite CPAN modules and test them - this should be done
270 =head2 sendmsg and recvmsg
272 We have all the other BSD socket functions but these. There are
273 metaconfig units for these functions which can be added. To avoid these
274 being new opcodes, a solution similar to the way C<sockatmark> was added
275 would be preferable. (Autoload the C<IO::whatever> module.)
277 =head2 Rewrite perlre documentation
279 The new-style patterns need full documentation, and the whole document
280 needs to be a lot clearer.
282 =head2 Convert example code to IO::Handle filehandles
284 =head2 Document Win32 choices
286 =head2 Check new modules
288 =head2 Make roffitall find pods and libs itself
290 Simon Cozens has done some work on this but it needs a rethink.
292 =head1 To do at some point
294 These are ideas that have been regularly tossed around, that most
295 people believe should be done maybe during 5.8.x
297 =head2 Remove regular expression recursion
299 Because the regular expression engine is recursive, badly designed
300 expressions can lead to lots of recursion filling up the stack. Ilya
301 claims that it is easy to convert the engine to being iterative, but
302 this has still not yet been done. There may be a regular expression
303 engine hit squad meeting at TPC5.
305 =head2 Memory leaks after failed eval
307 Perl will leak memory if you C<eval "hlagh hlagh hlagh hlagh">. This is
308 partially because it attempts to build up an op tree for that code and
309 doesn't properly free it. The same goes for non-syntactically-correct
310 regular expressions. Hugo looked into this, but decided it needed a
311 mark-and-sweep GC implementation.
313 Alan notes that: The basic idea was to extend the parser token stack
314 (C<YYSTYPE>) to include a type field so we knew what sort of thing each
315 element of the stack was. The F<perly.c> code would then have to be
316 postprocessed to record the type of each entry on the stack as it was
317 created, and the parser patched so that it could unroll the stack
320 This is possible to do, but would be pretty messy to implement, as it
321 would rely on even more sed hackery in F<perly.fixer>.
323 =head2 bitfields in pack
325 =head2 Cross compilation
327 Make Perl buildable with a cross-compiler. This will play havoc with
328 Configure, which needs to know how the target system will respond to
329 its tests; maybe C<microperl> will be a good starting point here.
330 (Indeed, Bart Schuller reports that he compiled up C<microperl> for
331 the Agenda PDA and it works fine.) A really big spanner in the works
332 is the bootstrapping build process of Perl: if the filesystem the
333 target systems sees is not the same what the build host sees, various
334 input, output, and (Perl) library files need to be copied back and forth.
336 As of 5.8.0 Configure mostly works for cross-compilation
337 (used successfully for iPAQ Linux), miniperl gets built,
338 but then building DynaLoader (and other extensions) fails
339 since MakeMaker knows nothing of cross-compilation.
340 (See INSTALL/Cross-compilation for the state of things.)
342 =head2 Perl preprocessor / macros
344 Source filters help with this, but do not get us all the way. For
345 instance, it should be possible to implement the C<??> operator somehow;
346 source filters don't (quite) cut it.
348 =head2 Perl lexer in Perl
350 Damian Conway is planning to work on this, but it hasn't happened yet.
352 =head2 Using POSIX calls internally
354 When faced with a BSD vs. SysV -style interface to some library or
355 system function, perl's roots show in that it typically prefers the BSD
356 interface (but falls back to the SysV one). One example is getpgrp().
357 Other examples include C<memcpy> vs. C<bcopy>. There are others, mostly in
360 Mostly, this item is a suggestion for which way to start a journey into
361 an C<#ifdef> forest. It is not primarily a suggestion to eliminate any of
362 the C<#ifdef> forests.
364 POSIX calls are perhaps more likely to be portable to unexpected
365 architectures. They are also perhaps more likely to be actively
366 maintained by a current vendor. They are also perhaps more likely to be
367 available in thread-safe versions, if appropriate.
369 =head2 -i rename file when changed
371 It's only necessary to rename a file when inplace editing when the file
372 has changed. Detecting a change is perhaps the difficult bit.
374 =head2 All ARGV input should act like E<lt>E<gt>
376 eg C<read(ARGV, ...)> doesn't currently read across multiple files.
378 =head2 Support for rerunning debugger
380 There should be a way of restarting the debugger on demand.
382 =head2 Test Suite for the Debugger
384 The debugger is a complex piece of software and fixing something
385 here may inadvertently break something else over there. To tame
386 this chaotic behaviour, a test suite is necessary.
388 =head2 my sub foo { }
390 The basic principle is sound, but there are problems with the semantics
391 of self-referential and mutually referential lexical subs: how to
394 =head2 One-pass global destruction
396 Sweeping away all the allocated memory in one go is a laudable goal, but
397 it's difficult and in most cases, it's easier to let the memory get
400 =head2 Rewrite regexp parser
402 There has been talk recently of rewriting the regular expression parser
403 to produce an optree instead of a chain of opcodes; it's unclear whether
404 or not this would be a win.
406 =head2 Cache recently used regexps
410 for my $re (@regexps) {
414 C<qr//> already gives us a way of saving compiled regexps, but it should
415 be done automatically.
417 =head2 Cross-compilation support
419 Bart Schuller reports that using C<microperl> and a cross-compiler, he
420 got Perl working on the Agenda PDA. However, one cannot build a full
421 Perl because Configure needs to get the results for the target platform,
424 =head2 Bit-shifting bitvectors
428 vec($v, 1000, 1) = 1;
430 One should be able to do
434 and have the 999'th bit set.
436 Currently if you try with shift bitvectors you shift the NV/UV, instead
437 of the bits in the PV. Not very logical.
439 =head2 debugger pragma
441 The debugger is implemented in Perl in F<perl5db.pl>; turning it into a
442 pragma should be easy, but making it work lexically might be more
443 difficult. Fiddling with C<$^P> would be necessary.
445 =head2 use less pragma
447 Identify areas where speed/memory tradeoffs can be made and have a hint
448 to switch between them.
450 =head2 switch structures
452 Although we have C<Switch.pm> in core, Larry points to the dormant
453 C<nswitch> and C<cswitch> ops in F<pp.c>; using these opcodes would be
456 =head2 Cache eval tree
460 =head2 Shrink opcode tables
462 =head2 Optimize away @_
464 Look at the "reification" code in C<av.c>
466 =head2 Prototypes versus indirect objects
468 Currently, indirect object syntax bypasses prototype checks.
472 HTML versions of the documentation need to be installed by default; a
473 call to C<installhtml> from C<installperl> may be all that's necessary.
475 =head2 Prototype method calls
477 =head2 Return context prototype declarations
481 =head2 Garbage collection
483 There have been persistent mumblings about putting a mark-and-sweep
484 garbage detector into Perl; Alan Burlison has some ideas about this.
488 Mark-Jason Dominus has the beginnings of one of these.
490 =head2 Rewrite perldoc
492 There are a few suggestions for what to do with C<perldoc>: maybe a
493 full-text search, an index function, locating pages on a particular
494 high-level subject, and so on.
496 =head2 Install .3p manpages
498 This is a bone of contention; we can create C<.3p> manpages for each
499 built-in function, but should we install them by default? Tcl does this,
500 and it clutters up C<apropos>.
502 =head2 Unicode tutorial
504 Simon Cozens promises to do this before he gets old.
506 =head2 Update POSIX.pm for 1003.1-2
508 =head2 Retargetable installation
510 Allow C<@INC> to be changed after Perl is built.
512 =head2 POSIX emulation on non-POSIX systems
514 Make C<POSIX.pm> behave as POSIXly as possible everywhere, meaning we
515 have to implement POSIX equivalents for some functions if necessary.
517 =head2 Rename Win32 headers
519 =head2 Finish off lvalue functions
521 They don't work in the debugger, and they don't work for list or hash
524 =head2 Update sprintf documentation
526 Hugo van der Sanden plans to look at this.
528 =head2 Use fchown/fchmod internally
530 This has been done in places, but needs a thorough code review.
531 Also fchdir is available in some platforms.
533 =head2 Make v-strings overloaded objects
535 Instead of having to guess whether a string is a v-string and thus
536 needs to be displayed with %vd, make v-strings (readonly) objects
537 (class "vstring"?) with a stringify overload.
539 =head2 Allow restricted hash assignment
541 Currently you're not allowed to assign to a restricted hash at all,
542 even with the same keys.
544 %restricted = (foo => 42); # error
546 This should be allowed if the new keyset is a subset of the old
547 keyset. May require more extra code than we'd like in pp_aassign.
549 =head2 Should overload be inheritable?
551 Should overload be 'contagious' through @ISA so that derived classes
552 would inherit their base classes' overload definitions? What to do
553 in case of overload conflicts?
557 Should taint be stopped from affecting control flow, if ($tainted)?
558 Should tainted symbolic method calls and subref calls be stopped?
559 (Look at Ruby's $SAFE levels for inspiration?)
563 Ideas which have been discussed, and which may or may not happen.
565 =head2 ref() in list context
567 It's unclear what this should do or how to do it without breaking old
570 =head2 Make tr/// return histogram of characters in list context
572 There is a patch for this, but it may require Unicodification.
574 =head2 Compile to real threaded code
576 =head2 Structured types
578 =head2 Modifiable $1 et al.
580 ($x = "elephant") =~ /e(ph)/;
581 $1 = "g"; # $x = "elegant"
583 What happens if there are multiple (nested?) brackets? What if the
584 string changes between the match and the assignment?
586 =head2 Procedural interfaces for IO::*, etc.
588 Some core modules have been accused of being overly-OO. Adding
589 procedural interfaces could demystify them.
593 =head2 Attach/detach debugger from running program
595 With C<gdb>, you can attach the debugger to a running program if you
596 pass the process ID. It would be good to do this with the Perl debugger
597 on a running Perl program, although I'm not sure how it would be done.
601 A non-core module that would use "native" GUI to create graphical
604 =head2 foreach(reverse ...)
608 foreach (reverse @_) { ... }
610 puts C<@_> on the stack, reverses it putting the reversed version on the
611 stack, then iterates forwards. Instead, it could be special-cased to put
612 C<@_> on the stack then iterate backwards.
614 =head2 Constant function cache
616 =head2 Approximate regular expression matching
620 These items B<always> need doing:
622 =head2 Update guts documentation
624 Simon Cozens tries to do this when possible, and contributions to the
625 C<perlapi> documentation is welcome.
627 =head2 Add more tests
629 Michael Schwern will donate $500 to Yet Another Society when all core
632 =head2 Update auxiliary tools
634 The code we ship with Perl should look like good Perl 5.
636 =head2 Create debugging macros
638 Debugging macros (like printsv, dump) can make debugging perl inside a
639 C debugger much easier. A good set for gdb comes with mod_perl.
640 Something similar should be distributed with perl.
642 The proper way to do this is to use and extend Devel::DebugInit.
643 Devel::DebugInit also needs to be extended to support threads.
645 See p5p archives for late May/early June 2001 for a recent discussion
648 =head2 truncate to the people
650 One can emulate ftruncate() using F_FREESP and F_CHSIZ fcntls
651 (see the UNIX FAQ for details). This needs to go somewhere near
652 pp_sys.c:pp_truncate().
654 One can emulate truncate() easily if one has ftruncate().
655 This emulation should also go near pp_sys.pp_truncate().
657 =head2 Unicode in Filenames
659 chdir, chmod, chown, chroot, exec, glob, link, lstat, mkdir, open, qx,
660 readdir, readlink, rename, rmdir, stat, symlink, sysopen, system,
661 truncate, unlink, utime. All these could potentially accept Unicode
662 filenames either as input or output (and in the case of system and qx
663 Unicode in general, as input or output to/from the shell). Whether a
664 filesystem - an operating system pair understands Unicode in filenames
667 Known combinations that have some level of understanding include
668 Microsoft NTFS, Apple HFS+ (In Mac OS 9 and X) and Apple UFS (in Mac
669 OS X), NFS v4 is rumored to be Unicode, and of course Plan 9. How to
670 create Unicode filenames, what forms of Unicode are accepted and used
671 (UCS-2, UTF-16, UTF-8), what (if any) is the normalization form used,
672 and so on, varies. Finding the right level of interfacing to Perl
673 requires some thought. Remember that an OS does not implicate a
676 Note that in Windows the -C command line flag already does quite
677 a bit of the above (but even there the support is not complete:
678 for example the exec/spawn are not Unicode-aware) by turning on
679 the so-called "wide API support".
681 =head1 Recently done things
683 These are things which have been on the todo lists in previous releases
684 but have recently been completed.
686 =head2 Alternative RE syntax module
688 The C<Regexp::English> module, available from the CPAN, provides this:
690 my $re = Regexp::English
692 -> literal('Flippers')
703 =head2 Safe signal handling
705 A new signal model went into 5.7.1 without much fanfare. Operations and
706 C<malloc>s are no longer interrupted by signals, which are handled
707 between opcodes. This means that C<PERL_ASYNC_CHECK> now actually does
708 something. However, there are still a few things that need to be done.
712 Modules which implement arrays in terms of strings, substrings or files
713 can be found on the CPAN.
717 C<Time::HiRes> has been integrated into the core.
719 =head2 setitimer and getimiter
721 Adding C<Time::HiRes> got us this too.
723 =head2 Testing __DIE__ hook
725 Tests have been added.
727 =head2 CPP equivalent in Perl
729 A C Yardley will probably have done this by the time you can read this.
730 This allows for a generalization of the C constant detection used in
731 building C<Errno.pm>.
733 =head2 Explicit switch statements
735 C<Switch.pm> has been integrated into the core to give you all manner of
736 C<switch...case> semantics.
744 Nick Ing-Simmons has made UTF-EBCDIC (UTR13) work with Perl.
746 EBCDIC? http://www.unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr16/
750 Although there are probably some small bugs to be rooted out, Jarkko
751 Hietaniemi has made regular expressions polymorphic between bytes and
754 =head2 perlcc to produce executable
756 C<perlcc> was recently rewritten, and can now produce standalone
759 =head2 END blocks saved in compiled output
761 =head2 Secure temporary file module
763 Tim Jenness' C<File::Temp> is now in core.
765 =head2 Integrate Time::HiRes
767 This module is now part of core.
769 =head2 Turn Cwd into XS
771 Benjamin Sugars has done this.
773 =head2 Mmap for input
775 Nick Ing-Simmons' C<perlio> supports an C<mmap> IO method.
777 =head2 Byte to/from UTF8 and UTF8 to/from local conversion
779 C<Encode> provides this.
781 =head2 Add sockatmark support
785 =head2 Mailing list archives
787 http://lists.perl.org/ , http://archive.develooper.com/
791 Richard Foley has written the bug tracking system at http://bugs.perl.org/
793 =head2 Integrate MacPerl
795 Chris Nandor and Matthias Neeracher have integrated the MacPerl changes
798 =head2 Web "nerve center" for Perl
800 http://use.perl.org/ is what you're looking for.
802 =head2 Regular expression tutorial
804 C<perlretut>, provided by Mark Kvale.
806 =head2 Debugging Tutorial
808 C<perldebtut>, written by Richard Foley.
810 =head2 Integrate new modules
812 Jarkko has been integrating madly into 5.7.x
814 =head2 Integrate profiler
816 C<Devel::DProf> is now a core module.
818 =head2 Y2K error detection
820 There's a configure option to detect unsafe concatenation with "19", and
821 a CPAN module. (C<D'oh::Year>)
823 =head2 Regular expression debugger
825 While not part of core, Mark-Jason Dominus has written C<Rx> and has
826 also come up with a generalised strategy for regular expression
831 That's, uh, F<podchecker>
833 =head2 "Dynamic" lexicals
835 =head2 Cache precompiled modules
837 =head1 Deprecated Wishes
839 These are items which used to be in the todo file, but have been
840 deprecated for some reason.
842 =head2 Loop control on do{}
844 This would break old code; use C<do{{ }}> instead.
846 =head2 Lexically scoped typeglobs
848 Not needed now we have lexical IO handles.
854 Damian Conway's text formatting modules seem to be the Way To Go.
856 =head2 Generalised want()/caller())
858 Robin Houston's C<Want> module does this.
860 =head2 Named prototypes
862 This seems to be delayed until Perl 6.
864 =head2 Built-in globbing
866 The C<File::Glob> module has been used to replace the C<glob> function.
868 =head2 Regression tests for suidperl
870 C<suidperl> is deprecated in favour of common sense.
872 =head2 Cached hash values
874 We have shared hash keys, which perform the same job.
876 =head2 Add compression modules
878 The compression modules are a little heavy; meanwhile, Nick Clark is
879 working on experimental pragmata to do transparent decompression on
882 =head2 Reorganise documentation into tutorials/references
884 Could not get consensus on P5P about this.
886 =head2 Remove distinction between functions and operators
888 Caution: highly flammable.
890 =head2 Make XS easier to use
892 Use C<Inline> instead, or SWIG.
894 =head2 Make embedding easier to use
900 See the Perl Power Tools. ( http://language.perl.com/ppt/ )
902 =head2 my $Package::variable
906 =head2 "or" tests defined, not truth
908 Suggesting this on P5P B<will> cause a boring and interminable flamewar.
910 =head2 "class"-based lexicals
912 Use flyweight objects, secure hashes or, dare I say it, pseudo-hashes instead.
913 (Or whatever will replace pseudohashes in 5.10.)
917 C<ByteLoader> covers this.
919 =head2 Lazy evaluation / tail recursion removal
921 C<List::Util> gives first() (a short-circuiting grep); tail recursion
922 removal is done manually, with C<goto &whoami;>. (However, MJD has
923 found that C<goto &whoami> introduces a performance penalty, so maybe
924 there should be a way to do this after all: C<sub foo {START: ... goto
927 =head2 Make "use utf8" the default
929 Because of backward compatibility this is difficult: scripts could not
930 contain B<any legacy eight-bit data> (like Latin-1) anymore, even in
931 string literals or pod. Also would introduce a measurable slowdown of
932 at least few percentages since all regular expression operations would
933 be done in full UTF-8. But if you want to try this, add
934 -DUSE_UTF8_SCRIPTS to your compilation flags.
936 =head2 Unicode collation and normalization
938 The Unicode::Collate and Unicode::Normalize modules
939 by SADAHIRO Tomoyuki have been included since 5.8.0.
941 Collation? http://www.unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr10/
942 Normalization? http://www.unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr15/
944 =head2 pack/unpack tutorial
946 Wolfgang Laun finished what Simon Cozens started.