-Changes to perl
----------------
-
-Apart from little bug fixes, here are the new features:
-
-Perl can now handle binary data correctly and has functions to pack and
-unpack binary structures into arrays or lists. You can now do arbitrary
-ioctl functions.
-
-You can do i/o with sockets and select.
-
-You can now write packages with their own namespace.
-
-You can now pass things to subroutines by reference.
-
-The debugger now has hooks in the perl parser so it doesn't get confused.
-The debugger won't interfere with stdin and stdout. New debugger commands:
- n Single step around subroutine call.
- l min+incr List incr+1 lines starting at min.
- l List incr+1 more lines.
- l subname List subroutine.
- b subname Set breakpoint at first line of subroutine.
- S List subroutine names.
- D Delete all breakpoints.
- A List line actions.
- < command Define command before prompt.
- > command Define command after prompt.
- ! number Redo command (default previous command).
- ! -number Redo numberth to last command.
- h -number Display last number commands (default all).
- p expr Same as \"print DBout expr\".
-
-The rules are more consistent about where parens are needed and
-where they are not. In particular, unary operators and list operators now
-behave like functions if they're called like functions.
-
-There are some new quoting mechanisms:
- $foo = q/"'"'"'"'"'"'"/;
- $foo = qq/"'"''$bar"''/;
- $foo = q(hi there);
- $foo = <<'EOF' x 10;
- Why, it's the old here-is mechanism!
- EOF
-
-You can now work with array slices (note the initial @):
- @foo[1,2,3];
- @foo{'Sun','Mon','Tue','Wed','Thu','Fri','Sat'} = (1,2,3,4,5,6,7);
- @foo{split} = (1,1,1,1,1,1,1);
-
-There's now a range operator that works in array contexts:
- for (1..15) { ...
- @foo[3..5] = ('time','for','all');
- @foo{'Sun','Mon','Tue','Wed','Thu','Fri','Sat'} = 1..7;
-
-You can now reference associative arrays as a whole:
- %abc = %def;
- %foo = ('Sun',1,'Mon',2,'Tue',3,'Wed',4,'Thu',5,'Fri',6,'Sat',7);
-
-Associative arrays can now be bound to a dbm or ndbm file. Perl automatically
-caches references to the dbm file for you.
-
-An array or associative array can now be assigned to as part of a list, if
-it's the last thing in the list:
- ($a,$b,@rest) = split;
-
-An array or associative array may now appear in a local() list.
- local(%assoc);
- local(@foo) = @_;
-
-Array values may now be interpolated into strings:
- `echo @ARGV`;
- print "first three = @list[0..2]\n";
- print "@ENV{keys(ENV)}";
- ($" is used as the delimiter between array elements)
-
-Array sizes may be interpolated into strings:
- print "The last element is $#foo.\n";
-
-Array values may now be returned from subroutines, evals, and do blocks.
-
-Lists of values in formats may now be arbitrary expressions, separated
-by commas.
-
-Subroutine names are now distinguished by prefixing with &. You can call
-subroutines without using do, and without passing any argument list at all:
- $foo = &min($a,$b,$c);
- $num = &myrand;
-
-You can use the new -u switch to cause perl to dump core so that you can
-run undump and produce a binary executable image. Alternately you can
-use the "dump" operator after initializing any variables and such.
-
-Perl now optimizes splits that are assigned directly to an array, or
-to a list with fewer elements than the split would produce, or that
-split on a constant string.
-
-Perl now optimizes on end matches such as /foo$/;
-
-Perl now recognizes {n,m} in patterns to match preceding item at least n times
-and no more than m times. Also recognizes {n,} and {n} to match n or more
-times, or exactly n times. If { occurs in other than this context it is
-still treated as a normal character.
-
-Perl now optimizes "next" to avoid unnecessary longjmps and subroutine calls.
-
-Perl now optimizes appended input: $_ .= <>;
-
-Substitutions are faster if the substituted text is constant, especially
-when substituting at the beginning of a string. This plus the previous
-optimization let you run down a file comparing multiple lines more
-efficiently. (Basically the equivalents of sed's N and D are faster.)
-
-Similarly, combinations of shifts and pushes on the same array are much
-faster now--it doesn't copy all the pointers every time you shift (just
-every n times, where n is approximately the length of the array plus 10,
-more if you pre-extend the array), so you can use an array as a shift
-register much more efficiently:
- push(@ary,shift(@ary));
-or
- shift(@ary); push(@ary,<>);
-
-The shift operator used inside subroutines now defaults to shifting
-the @_ array. You can still shift ARGV explicitly, of course.
-
-The @_ array which is passed to subroutines is a local array, but the
-elements of it are passed by reference now. This means that if you
-explicitly modify $_[0], you are actually modifying the first argument
-to the routine. Assignment to another location (such as the usual
-local($foo) = @_ trick) causes a copy of the value, so this will not
-affect most scripts. However, if you've modified @_ values in the
-subroutine you could be in for a surprise. I don't believe most people
-will find this a problem, and the long term efficiency gain is worth
-a little confusion.
-
-Perl now detects sequences of references to the same variable and builds
-switch statements internally wherever reasonable.
-
-The substr function can take offsets from the end of the string.
-
-The substr function can be assigned to in order to change the interior of a
-string in place.
-
-The split function can return as part of the returned array any substrings
-matched as part of the delimiter:
- split(/([-,])/, '1-10,20')
-returns
- (1,'-',10,',',20)
-
-If you specify a maximum number of fields to split, the truncation of
-trailing null fields is disabled.
-
-You can now chop lists.
-
-Perl now uses /bin/csh to do filename globbing, if available. This means
-that filenames with spaces or other strangenesses work right.
-
-Perl can now report multiple syntax errors with a single invocation.
-
-Perl syntax errors now give two tokens of context where reasonable.
-
-Perl will now report the possibility of a runaway multi-line string if
-such a string ends on a line with a syntax error.
-
-The assumed assignment in a while now works in the while modifier as
-well as the while statement.
-
-Perl can now warn you if you use numeric == on non-numeric string values.
-
-New functions:
- mkdir and rmdir
- getppid
- getpgrp and setpgrp
- getpriority and setpriority
- chroot
- ioctl and fcntl
- flock
- readlink
- lstat
- rindex - find last occurrence of substring
- pack and unpack - turn structures into arrays and vice versa
- read - just what you think
- warn - like die, only not fatal
- dbmopen and dbmclose - bind a dbm file to an associative array
- dump - do core dump so you can undump
- reverse - turns an array value end for end
- defined - does an object exist?
- undef - make an object not exist
- vec - treat string as a vector of small integers
- fileno - return the file descriptor for a handle
- wantarray - was subroutine called in array context?
- opendir
- readdir
- telldir
- seekdir
- rewinddir
- closedir
- syscall
- socket
- bind
- connect
- listen
- accept
- shutdown
- socketpair
- getsockname
- getpeername
- getsockopt
- setsockopt
- getpwnam
- getpwuid
- getpwent
- setpwent
- endpwent
- getgrnam
- getgrgid
- getgrent
- setgrent
- endgrent
- gethostbyname
- gethostbyaddr
- gethostent
- sethostent
- endhostent
- getnetbyname
- getnetbyaddr
- getnetent
- setnetent
- endnetent
- getprotobyname
- getprotobynumber
- getprotoent
- setprotoent
- endprotoent
- getservbyname
- getservbyport
- getservent
- setservent
- endservent
-
-Changes to s2p
---------------
-
-In patterns, s2p now translates \{n,m\} correctly to {n,m}.
-
-In patterns, s2p no longer removes backslashes in front of |.
-
-In patterns, s2p now removes backslashes in front of [a-zA-Z0-9].
-
-S2p now makes use of the location of perl as determined by Configure.
-
-
-Changes to a2p
---------------
-
-A2p can now accurately translate the "in" operator by using perl's new
-"defined" operator.
-
-A2p can now accurately translate the passing of arrays by reference.
+Please note: This file provides a summary of significant changes
+between versions and sub-versions of Perl, not necessarily a complete
+list of each modification. If you'd like more detailed information,
+please consult the comments in the patches on which the relevant
+release of Perl is based. (Patches can be found on any CPAN
+site, in the .../src/5.0 directory for full version releases,
+or in the .../src/5/0/unsupported directory for sub-version
+releases.)
+
+
+ ---------------
+ CAST AND CREW
+ ---------------
+
+To give due honor to those who have made Perl what is is today,
+here are some of the more common names in the Changes file, and their
+current addresses (as of March 1997):
+
+ Gisle Aas <gisle@aas.no>
+ Kenneth Albanowski <kjahds@kjahds.com>
+ Graham Barr <gbarr@ti.com>
+ Spider Boardman <spider@orb.nashua.nh.us>
+ Tom Christiansen <tchrist@perl.com>
+ Hallvard B Furuseth <h.b.furuseth@usit.uio.no>
+ M. J. T. Guy <mjtg@cus.cam.ac.uk>
+ Gurusamy Sarathy <gsar@engin.umich.edu>
+ Jarkko Hietaniemi <jhi@iki.fi>
+ Nick Ing-Simmons <nik@tiuk.ti.com>
+ Andreas Koenig <a.koenig@mind.de>
+ Doug MacEachern <dougm@opengroup.org>
+ Paul Marquess <pmarquess@bfsec.bt.co.uk>
+ Hans Mulder <hansm@euronet.nl>
+ Jeff Okamoto <okamoto@hpcc123.corp.hp.com>
+ Ulrich Pfeifer <pfeifer@charly.informatik.uni-dortmund.de>
+ Tom Phoenix <rootbeer@teleport.com>
+ Norbert Pueschel <pueschel@imsdd.meb.uni-bonn.de>
+ Dean Roehrich <roehrich@cray.com>
+ Roderick Schertler <roderick@argon.org>
+ Larry W. Virden <lvirden@cas.org>
+ Ilya Zakharevich <ilya@math.ohio-state.edu>
+
+And the Keepers of the Patch Pumpkin:
+
+ Charles Bailey <bailey@hmivax.humgen.upenn.edu>
+ Tim Bunce <Tim.Bunce@ig.co.uk>
+ Andy Dougherty <doughera@lafcol.lafayette.edu>
+ Chip Salzenberg <chip@perl.com>
+ Malcolm Beattie <mbeattie@sable.ox.ac.uk>
+
+And, of course, the Author of Perl:
+
+ Larry Wall <larry@wall.org>
+
+----------------
+Version 5.004_64 Developer release working toward 5.005
+----------------
+
+[Put changes here. Should we go back and put in changes for
+_51 onwards?]
+
+----------------
+Version 5.004_50 First developer release towards 5.005
+----------------
+
+Maintenance of the 5.004 version of perl continues with the 5.004_xx
+series, where 'xx' is <= 49. Development of the next version, 5.005,
+starts with 5.004_50.
projects / p5sagit/p5-mst-13.2.git / blobdiff