X-Git-Url: http://git.shadowcat.co.uk/gitweb/gitweb.cgi?a=blobdiff_plain;f=pod%2Fperl591delta.pod;h=400f90f893580b3085a1bfaca2f33406b4cf3d7e;hb=8896765ab803e8ecde87ca250efb892518f0df16;hp=df76f58e00757eb1ffcfa25af4f0f8db7a6d4689;hpb=466126d39b7f827ef9818652e6ebb9bd597175be;p=p5sagit%2Fp5-mst-13.2.git diff --git a/pod/perl591delta.pod b/pod/perl591delta.pod index df76f58..400f90f 100644 --- a/pod/perl591delta.pod +++ b/pod/perl591delta.pod @@ -4,12 +4,25 @@ perldelta - what is new for perl v5.9.1 =head1 DESCRIPTION -This document describes differences between the 5.9.0 release and -the 5.9.1 release. See L for the differences between +This document describes differences between the 5.9.0 and the 5.9.1 +development releases. See L for the differences between 5.8.0 and 5.9.0. =head1 Incompatible Changes +=head2 substr() lvalues are no longer fixed-length + +The lvalues returned by the three argument form of substr() used to be a +"fixed length window" on the original string. In some cases this could +cause surprising action at distance or other undefined behaviour. Now the +length of the window adjusts itself to the length of the string assigned to +it. + +=head2 The C<:unique> attribute is only meaningful for globals + +Now applying C<:unique> to lexical variables and to subroutines will +result in a compilation error. + =head1 Core Enhancements =head2 Lexical C<$_> @@ -31,8 +44,8 @@ overriding the lexical declaration with C. =head2 Tied hashes in scalar context -As of perl 5.8.2, tied hashes did not return anything useful in scalar -context, for example when used as boolean tests: +As of perl 5.8.2/5.9.0, tied hashes did not return anything useful in +scalar context, for example when used as boolean tests: if (%tied_hash) { ... } @@ -53,11 +66,6 @@ correctly in picture lines. Using C<@#> and C<~~> together will now produce a compile-time error, as those format fields are incompatible. L has been improved, and miscellaneous bugs fixed. -=head2 The C<:unique> attribute is only meaningful for globals - -Now applying C<:unique> to lexical variables and to subroutines will -result in a compilation error. - =head2 Stacked filetest operators As a new form of syntactic sugar, it's now possible to stack up filetest @@ -121,27 +129,34 @@ is now documented. =head1 Performance Enhancements +Sorting arrays in place (C<@a = sort @a>) is now optimized to avoid +making a temporary copy of the array. + The operations involving case mapping on UTF-8 strings (uc(), lc(), C, etc.) have been greatly speeded up. -=head1 Installation and Configuration Improvements +Access to elements of lexical arrays via a numeric constant between 0 and +255 is now faster. (This used to be only the case for global arrays.) =head1 Selected Bug Fixes -=head2 UTF8 bugs +=head2 UTF-8 bugs -Using substr() on a UTF8 string could cause subsequent accesses on that -string to return garbage. This was due to incorrect UTF8 offsets being +Using substr() on a UTF-8 string could cause subsequent accesses on that +string to return garbage. This was due to incorrect UTF-8 offsets being cached, and is now fixed. join() could return garbage when the same join() statement was used to -process 8 bit data having earlier processed UTF8 data, due to the flags +process 8 bit data having earlier processed UTF-8 data, due to the flags on that statement's temporary workspace not being reset correctly. This is now fixed. Using Unicode keys with tied hashes should now work correctly. -chop() and chomp() used to mangle UTF8 strings. This has been fixed. +chop() and chomp() used to mangle UTF-8 strings. This has been fixed. + +sprintf() used to misbehave when the format string was in UTF-8. This is +now fixed. =head2 Threading bugs @@ -150,15 +165,12 @@ threads. They are now. =head2 More bugs -C<$a .. $b> will now work as expected when either $a or $b is C +C<$a .. $b> will now work as expected when either $a or $b is C. Reading $^E now preserves $!. Previously, the C code implementing $^E did not preserve C, so reading $^E could cause C and therefore C<$!> to change unexpectedly. -Reentrant functions will (once more) work with C++. 5.8.2 introduced a bugfix -which accidentally broke the compilation of Perl extensions written in C++. - C wasn't in effect in regexp-eval blocks (C). =head1 New or Changed Diagnostics @@ -171,11 +183,11 @@ construct See L. -The fatal error "DESTROY created new reference to dead object" is now +The fatal error I is now documented in L. -A new error, "%ENV is aliased to %s", is produced when taint checks are -enabled and when *ENV has been aliased (and thus doesn't reflect the +A new error, I<%ENV is aliased to %s>, is produced when taint checks are +enabled and when C<*ENV> has been aliased (and thus doesn't reflect the program's environment anymore.) =head1 Changed Internals @@ -208,6 +220,11 @@ removed and replaced by two one-bit fields, C and C. C is now 9 bits long. (Consequently, the C class doesn't provide an C method anymore.) +=head2 New parser + +perl's parser is now generated by bison (it used to be generated by +byacc.) As a result, it seems to be a bit more robust. + =head1 Configuration and Building C now invokes callbacks regardless of the value of the variable @@ -215,18 +232,77 @@ they are called for. Previously callbacks were only invoked in the C branch. This change should only affect platform maintainers writing configuration hints files. -=head1 New Tests +The portability and cleanliness of the Win32 makefiles has been improved. =head1 Known Problems -=head1 Platform Specific Problems +There are still a couple of problems in the implementation of the lexical +C<$_>: it doesn't work inside C blocks and with regard to the +reverse() built-in used without arguments. (See the TODO tests in +F.) + +=head2 Platform Specific Problems + +The test F may fail on OpenBSD. This hasn't been +diagnosed yet. + +On some configurations on AIX 5, one test in F fails. +When configured with long doubles, perl may fail tests 224-236 in +F on the same platform. + +For threaded builds, F has been reported to +fail some tests on HP-UX 10.20. + +=head1 To-do for perl 5.10.0 + +This is a non-exhaustive, non-ordered, non-contractual and non-definitive +list of things to do (or nice to have) for perl 5.10.0 : + +Clean up and finish support for assertions. See L. + +Reimplement the mechanism of lexical pragmas to be more extensible. Fix +current pragmas that don't work well (or at all) with lexical scopes or in +run-time eval(STRING) (C, C, C for example). MJD has a +preliminary patch that implements this. + +Fix (or rewrite) the implementation of the C closures. + +Conversions from byte strings to UTF-8 currently map high bit characters +to Unicode without translation (or, depending on how you look at it, by +implicitly assuming that the byte strings are in Latin-1). As perl assumes +the C locale by default, upgrading a string to UTF-8 may change the +meaning of its contents regarding character classes, case mapping, etc. +This should probably emit a warning (at least). + +Introduce a new special block, UNITCHECK, which is run at the end of a +compilation unit (module, file, eval(STRING) block). This will correspond to +the Perl 6 CHECK. Perl 5's CHECK cannot be changed or removed because the +O.pm/B.pm backend framework depends on it. + +Study the possibility of adding a new prototype character, C<_>, meaning +"this argument defaults to $_". + +Make the peephole optimizer optional. + +Allow lexical aliases (maybe via the syntax C. + +Fix the bugs revealed by running the test suite with the C<-t> switch (via +C). + +Make threads more robust. + +Make C and C work (opposite of C, etc.). + +A test suite for the B module would be nice. + +A ponie. =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://bugs.perl.org/ . There may also be -information at http://www.perl.com/ , the Perl Home Page. +information at http://www.perl.org/ , the Perl Home Page. If you believe you have an unreported bug, please run the B program included with your release. Be sure to trim your bug down