=head1 Incompatible Changes
-=over 4
-
-=item *
-
-The semantics of bless(REF, REF) were unclear and until someone proves
-it to make some sense, it is forbidden.
-
-=item *
-
-A reference to a reference now stringify as "REF(0x81485ec)" instead
-of "SCALAR(0x81485ec)" in order to be more consistent with the return
-value of ref().
-
-=item *
-
-The very dusty examples in the eg/ directory have been removed.
-Suggestions for new shiny examples welcome but the main issue is that
-the examples need to be documented, tested and (most importantly)
-maintained.
-
-=item *
-
-The obsolete chat2 library that should never have been allowed
-to escape the laboratory has been decommissioned.
-
-=item *
-
-The unimplemented POSIX regex features [[.cc.]] and [[=c=]] are still
-recognised but now cause fatal errors. The previous behaviour of
-ignoring them by default and warning if requested was unacceptable
-since it, in a way, falsely promised that the features could be used.
-
-=item *
-
-The (bogus) escape sequences \8 and \9 now give an optional warning
-("Unrecognized escape passed through"). There is no need to \-escape
-any C<\w> character.
-
-=item *
-
-lstat(FILEHANDLE) now gives a warning because the operation makes no sense.
-In future releases this may become a fatal error.
-
-=item *
-
-The long deprecated uppercase aliases for the string comparison
-operators (EQ, NE, LT, LE, GE, GT) have now been removed.
-
-=item *
-
-The regular expression captured submatches ($1, $2, ...) are now
-more consistently unset if the match fails, instead of leaving false
-data lying around in them.
-
-=item *
-
-The tr///C and tr///U features have been removed and will not return;
-the interface was a mistake. Sorry about that. For similar
-functionality, see pack('U0', ...) and pack('C0', ...).
-
-=item *
-
-Although "you shouldn't do that", it was possible to write code that
-depends on Perl's hashed key order (Data::Dumper does this). The new
-algorithm "One-at-a-Time" produces a different hashed key order.
-More details are in L</"Performance Enhancements">.
-
-=item *
-
-The list of filenames from glob() (or <...>) is now by default sorted
-alphabetically to be csh-compliant. (bsd_glob() does still sort platform
-natively, ASCII or EBCDIC, unless GLOB_ALPHASORT is specified.)
-
-=back
-
=head2 64-bit platforms and malloc
If your pointers are 64 bits wide, the Perl malloc is no more being
used because it simply does not work with 8-byte pointers. Also,
-usually the system malloc on such platforms are much better optimized
-for such large memory models than the Perl malloc.
+usually the system mallocs on such platforms are much better optimized
+for such large memory models than the Perl malloc. Such platforms
+include 64-bit Alpha, MIPS, HPPA, PPC, and Sparc.
=head2 AIX Dynaloading
what C<\p{InHebrew}> meant in perl 5.6.0. For the full list
of affected character classes, see L<perlunicode/Blocks>.
+=head2 Perl Parser Stress Tested
+
+The Perl parser has been stress tested using both random input and
+Markov chain input and the few found crashes and lockups have been
+fixed.
+
=head2 Deprecations
The current user-visible implementation of pseudo-hashes (the weird
The syntaxes C<@a->[...]> and C<@h->{...}> have now been deprecated.
-The suidperl is also considered to be too much a risk to continue
-maintaining and the suidperl code is likely to be removed in a future
-release.
+After years of trying the suidperl is considered to be too complex to
+ever be considered truly secure. The suidperl functionality is likely
+to be removed in a future release.
The C<package;> syntax (C<package> without an argument has been
deprecated. Its semantics were never that clear and its
implementation even less so. If you have used that feature to
disallow all but fully qualified variables, C<use strict;> instead.
-The chdir(undef) and chdir('') behaviors to match chdir() has been
-deprecated. In future versions, chdir(undef) and chdir('') will
-simply fail.
+=over 4
-=head1 Core Enhancements
+=item *
-=over 4
+The semantics of bless(REF, REF) were unclear and until someone proves
+it to make some sense, it is forbidden.
=item *
-C<perl -d:Module=arg,arg,arg> now works (previously one couldn't pass
-in multiple arguments.)
+A reference to a reference now stringify as "REF(0x81485ec)" instead
+of "SCALAR(0x81485ec)" in order to be more consistent with the return
+value of ref().
=item *
-my __PACKAGE__ $obj now works.
+The very dusty examples in the eg/ directory have been removed.
+Suggestions for new shiny examples welcome but the main issue is that
+the examples need to be documented, tested and (most importantly)
+maintained.
=item *
-C<no Module;> now works even if there is no "sub unimport" in the Module.
+The obsolete chat2 library that should never have been allowed
+to escape the laboratory has been decommissioned.
=item *
-The numerical comparison operators return C<undef> if either operand
-is a NaN. Previously the behaviour was unspecified.
+The unimplemented POSIX regex features [[.cc.]] and [[=c=]] are still
+recognised but now cause fatal errors. The previous behaviour of
+ignoring them by default and warning if requested was unacceptable
+since it, in a way, falsely promised that the features could be used.
=item *
-C<pack('U0a*', ...)> can now be used to force a string to UTF8.
+The (bogus) escape sequences \8 and \9 now give an optional warning
+("Unrecognized escape passed through"). There is no need to \-escape
+any C<\w> character.
=item *
-prototype(\&) is now available.
+lstat(FILEHANDLE) now gives a warning because the operation makes no sense.
+In future releases this may become a fatal error.
=item *
-There is now an UNTIE method.
+The long deprecated uppercase aliases for the string comparison
+operators (EQ, NE, LT, LE, GE, GT) have now been removed.
+
+=item *
+
+The regular expression captured submatches ($1, $2, ...) are now
+more consistently unset if the match fails, instead of leaving false
+data lying around in them.
+
+=item *
+
+The tr///C and tr///U features have been removed and will not return;
+the interface was a mistake. Sorry about that. For similar
+functionality, see pack('U0', ...) and pack('C0', ...).
+
+=item *
+
+Although "you shouldn't do that", it was possible to write code that
+depends on Perl's hashed key order (Data::Dumper does this). The new
+algorithm "One-at-a-Time" produces a different hashed key order.
+More details are in L</"Performance Enhancements">.
+
+=item *
+
+The list of filenames from glob() (or <...>) is now by default sorted
+alphabetically to be csh-compliant. (bsd_glob() does still sort platform
+natively, ASCII or EBCDIC, unless GLOB_ALPHASORT is specified.)
=back
+=head1 Core Enhancements
+
=head2 AUTOLOAD Is Now Lvaluable
AUTOLOAD is now lvaluable, meaning that you can add the :lvalue attribute
=item *
-The rules for allowing underscores (underbars) in numeric constants
-have been relaxed and simplified: now you can have an underscore
-B<between digits>.
+C<perl -d:Module=arg,arg,arg> now works (previously one couldn't pass
+in multiple arguments.)
=item *
-GMAGIC (right-hand side magic) could in many cases such as string
-concatenation be invoked too many times.
+END blocks are now run even if you exit/die in a BEGIN block.
+Internally, the execution of END blocks is now controlled by
+PL_exit_flags & PERL_EXIT_DESTRUCT_END. This enables the new
+behaviour for Perl embedders. This will default in 5.10. See
+L<perlembed>.
=item *
=item *
-The C<op_clear> and C<op_null> are now exported.
+A new special regular expression variable has been introduced:
+C<$^N>, which contains the most-recently closed group (submatch).
=item *
-A new special regular expression variable has been introduced:
-C<$^N>, which contains the most-recently closed group (submatch).
+C<no Module;> now works even if there is no "sub unimport" in the Module.
=item *
-L<utime> now supports C<utime undef, undef, @files> to change the
-file timestamps to the current time.
+The numerical comparison operators return C<undef> if either operand
+is a NaN. Previously the behaviour was unspecified.
=item *
-The Perl parser has been stress tested using both random input and
-Markov chain input.
+C<pack('U0a*', ...)> can now be used to force a string to UTF8.
=item *
-C<eval "v200"> now works.
+my __PACKAGE__ $obj now works.
=item *
-VMS now works under PerlIO.
+prototype(\&) is now available.
=item *
-END blocks are now run even if you exit/die in a BEGIN block.
-The execution of END blocks is now controlled by
-PL_exit_flags & PERL_EXIT_DESTRUCT_END. This enables the new
-behaviour for perl embedders. This will default in 5.10. See
-L<perlembed>.
+Right-hand side magic (GMAGIC) could in many cases such as string
+concatenation be invoked too many times.
+
+=item *
+
+The rules for allowing underscores (underbars) in numeric constants
+have been relaxed and simplified: now you can have an underscore
+simply B<between digits>.
+
+=item *
+
+An UNTIE method is now available.
+
+=item *
+
+L<utime> now supports C<utime undef, undef, @files> to change the
+file timestamps to the current time.
+
+=item *
+
+C<eval "v200"> now works.
=back
=item *
-File::Temp allows one to create temporary files and directories in an
-easy, portable, and secure way.
+C<Attribute::Handlers> allows a class to define attribute handlers.
-=item *
+ package MyPack;
+ use Attribute::Handlers;
+ sub Wolf :ATTR(SCALAR) { print "howl!\n" }
-Storable gives persistence to Perl data structures by allowing the
-storage and retrieval of Perl data to and from files in a fast and
-compact binary format.
+ # later, in some package using or inheriting from MyPack...
-=item *
+ my MyPack $Fluffy : Wolf; # the attribute handler Wolf will be called
+
+Both variables and routines can have attribute handlers. Handlers can
+be specific to type (SCALAR, ARRAY, HASH, or CODE), or specific to the
+exact compilation phase (BEGIN, CHECK, INIT, or END).
-B::Concise, by Stephen McCamant, is a new compiler backend for
-walking the Perl syntax tree, printing concise info about ops.
-The output is highly customisable.
+=item *
-See L<B::Concise> for more information.
+B<B::Concise> is a new compiler backend for walking the Perl syntax
+tree, printing concise info about ops, from Stephen McCamant. The
+output is highly customisable. See L<B::Concise>.
=item *
-Class::ISA, by Sean Burke, for reporting the search path for a
-class's ISA tree, has been added.
-
-See L<Class::ISA> for more information.
+C<Class::ISA> for reporting the search path for a class's ISA tree,
+by Sean Burke, has been added. See L<Class::ISA>.
=item *
-Cwd has now a split personality: if possible, an extension is used,
-(this will hopefully be both faster and more secure and robust) but
-if not possible, the familiar Perl library implementation is used.
+C<Cwd> has now a split personality: if possible, an XS extension is
+used, (this will hopefully be faster, more secure, and more robust)
+but if not possible, the familiar Perl implementation is used.
=item *
-Digest, a frontend module for calculating digests (checksums),
-from Gisle Aas, has been added.
-
-See L<Digest> for more information.
+C<Digest>, frontend module for calculating digests (checksums), from
+Gisle Aas, has been added. See L<Digest>.
=item *
-Digest::MD5 for calculating MD5 digests (checksums), by Gisle Aas,
-has been added.
+C<Digest::MD5> for calculating MD5 digests (checksums) as defined in
+RFC 1321, from Gisle Aas, has been added. See L<Digest::MD5>.
use Digest::MD5 'md5_hex';
print $digest, "\n"; # 01d19d9d2045e005c3f1b80e8b164de1
-NOTE: the MD5 backward compatibility module is deliberately not
+NOTE: the C<MD5> backward compatibility module is deliberately not
included since its use is discouraged.
-See L<Digest::MD5> for more information.
-
=item *
-Encode, by Nick Ing-Simmons, provides a mechanism to translate
+C<Encode>, by Nick Ing-Simmons, provides a mechanism to translate
between different character encodings. Support for Unicode,
ISO-8859-*, ASCII, CP*, KOI8-R, and three variants of EBCDIC are
compiled in to the module. Several other encodings (like Japanese,
Chinese, and MacIntosh encodings) are included and will be loaded at
-runtime.
+runtime. See L<Encode>.
Any encoding supported by Encode module is also available to the
":encoding()" layer if PerlIO is used.
-See L<Encode> for more information.
+=item *
+
+C<I18N::Langinfo> can be use to query locale information.
+See L<I18N::Langinfo>.
=item *
-Filter::Simple is an easy-to-use frontend to Filter::Util::Call,
-from Damian Conway.
+C<I18N::LangTags> has functions for dealing with RFC3066-style
+language tags, by Sean Burke. See <I18N::LangTags>.
+
+=item *
+
+C<ExtUtils::Constant> is a new tool for extension writers for
+generating XS code to import C header constants, by Nicholas Clark.
+See L<ExtUtils::Constant>.
+
+=item *
+
+C<Filter::Simple> is an easy-to-use frontend to Filter::Util::Call,
+from Damian Conway. See L<Filter::Simple>.
# in MyFilter.pm:
print "red\n"; # this code is not filtered, will print "red\n"
-See L<Filter::Simple> for more information.
+=item *
+
+C<File::Temp> allows one to create temporary files and directories in
+an easy, portable, and secure way, by Tim Jenness. See L<File::Temp>.
+
+=item *
+
+C<Filter::Util::Call> provides you with the framework to write
+I<Source Filters> in Perl, from Paul Marquess. For most uses the
+frontend Filter::Simple is to be preferred. See L<Filter::Util::Call>.
+
+=item *
+
+L<libnet> is a collection of perl5 modules related to network
+programming, from Graham Barr. See L<Net::FTP>, L<Net::NNTP>,
+L<Net::Ping>, L<Net::POP3>, L<Net::SMTP>, and L<Net::Time>.
+
+Perl installation leaves libnet unconfigured, use F<libnetcfg> to configure.
=item *
-Filter::Util::Call, by Paul Marquess, provides you with the
-framework to write I<Source Filters> in Perl. For most uses
-the frontend Filter::Simple is to be preferred.
-See L<Filter::Util::Call> for more information.
+C<List::Util> is a selection of general-utility list subroutines, like
+sum(), min(), first(), and shuffle(), by Graham barr. See L<List::Util>.
=item *
-Locale::Constants, Locale::Country, Locale::Currency, and Locale::Language,
-from Neil Bowers, have been added. They provide the codes for various
-locale standards, such as "fr" for France, "usd" for US Dollar, and
-"jp" for Japanese.
+C<Locale::Constants>, C<Locale::Country>, C<Locale::Currency>, and
+C<Locale::Language>, from Neil Bowers, have been added. They provide the
+codes for various locale standards, such as "fr" for France, "usd" for
+US Dollar, and "jp" for Japanese.
use Locale::Country;
$code = country2code('Norway'); # $code gets 'no'
See L<Locale::Constants>, L<Locale::Country>, L<Locale::Currency>,
-and L<Locale::Language> for more information.
+and L<Locale::Language>.
+
+=item *
+
+C<Locale::Maketext> is localization framework from Sean Burke. See
+L<Locale::Maketext>, and L<Locale::Maketext::TPJ13>. The latter is an
+article about software localization, originally published in The Perl
+Journal #13, republished here with kind permission.
+
+=item *
+
+C<Memoize> can make your functions faster by trading space for time,
+from Mark-Jason Dominus. See L<Memoize>.
=item *
-MIME::Base64, by Gisle Aas, allows you to encode data in base64.
+C<MIME::Base64> allows you to encode data in base64, from Gisle Aas,
+as defined in RFC 2045 - I<MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail
+Extensions)>.
use MIME::Base64;
print $encoded, "\n"; # "QWxhZGRpbjpvcGVuIHNlc2FtZQ=="
-See L<MIME::Base64> for more information.
+See L<MIME::Base64>.
=item *
-MIME::QuotedPrint, by Gisle Aas, allows you to encode data in
-quoted-printable encoding.
+C<MIME::QuotedPrint> allows you to encode data in quoted-printable
+encoding, as defined in RFC 2045 - I<MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail
+Extensions)>, from Gisle Aas.
use MIME::QuotedPrint;
use MIME::QuotedPrint;
open($fh,">Via(MIME::QuotedPrint)",$path)
-See L<MIME::QuotedPrint> for more information.
+See L<MIME::QuotedPrint>.
=item *
-PerlIO::Scalar, by Nick Ing-Simmons, provides the implementation of
-IO to "in memory" Perl scalars as discussed above. It also serves as
-an example of a loadable layer. Other future possibilities include
-PerlIO::Array and PerlIO::Code. See L<PerlIO::Scalar> for more
-information.
+C<NEXT> is pseudo-class for method redispatch, from Damian Conway.
+See L<NEXT>.
=item *
-PerlIO::Via, by Nick Ing-Simmons, acts as a PerlIO layer and wraps
-PerlIO layer functionality provided by a class (typically implemented
-in perl code).
+C<PerlIO::Scalar> provides the implementation of IO to "in memory"
+Perl scalars as discussed above, from Nick Ing-Simmons. It also
+serves as an example of a loadable PerlIO layer. Other future
+possibilities include PerlIO::Array and PerlIO::Code.
+See L<PerlIO::Scalar>.
+
+=item *
+
+C<PerlIO::Via> acts as a PerlIO layer and wraps PerlIO layer
+functionality provided by a class (typically implemented in perl
+code), from Nick Ing-Simmons.
use MIME::QuotedPrint;
open($fh,">Via(MIME::QuotedPrint)",$path)
This will automatically convert everything output to C<$fh>
-to Quoted-Printable. See L<PerlIO::Via> for more information.
+to Quoted-Printable. See L<PerlIO::Via>.
=item *
-Pod::Text::Overstrike, by Joe Smith, has been added.
+C<Pod::Text::Overstrike>, by Joe Smith, has been added.
It converts POD data to formatted overstrike text.
-See L<Pod::Text::Overstrike> for more information.
+See L<Pod::Text::Overstrike>.
=item *
-Switch from Damian Conway has been added. Just by saying
+C<Scalar::Util> is a selection of general-utility scalar subroutines,
+like blessed(), reftype(), and tainted(). See L<Scalar::Util>.
+
+=item *
+
+C<Storable> gives persistence to Perl data structures by allowing the
+storage and retrieval of Perl data to and from files in a fast and
+compact binary format, from Raphael Manfredi. See L<Storable>.
+
+=item *
+
+C<Switch>, from Damian Conway, has been added. Just by saying
use Switch;
else { print "previous case not true" }
}
-See L<Switch> for more information.
+See L<Switch>.
+
+=item *
+
+C<Test::More> is yet another framework for writing test scripts,
+more extensive than Test::Simple, by Michael Schwern. See L<Test::More>.
+
+=item *
+
+C<Test::Simple> has the- basic utilities for writing tests, by Michael
+Schwern. See L<Test::Simple>.
=item *
-Text::Balanced from Damian Conway has been added, for
-extracting delimited text sequences from strings.
+C<Text::Balanced> has been added, for extracting delimited text
+sequences from strings, from Damian Conway.
use Text::Balanced 'extract_delimited';
extract_quotelike(), extract_codeblock(), extract_variable(),
extract_tagged(), extract_multiple(), gen_delimited_pat(), and
gen_extract_tagged(). With these you can implement rather advanced
-parsing algorithms. See L<Text::Balanced> for more information.
+parsing algorithms. See L<Text::Balanced>.
=item *
-Tie::RefHash::Nestable, by Edward Avis, allows storing hash references
-(unlike the standard Tie::RefHash) The module is contained within
-Tie::RefHash.
+C<threads> is an interface interpreter threads, by Arthur Bergman.
+Interpreter threads (ithreads) is the new thread model introduced in
+Perl 5.6 but then available only as an internal interface for
+extension writers. See L<threads>.
=item *
-XS::Typemap, by Tim Jenness, is a test extension that exercises XS
-typemaps. Nothing gets installed but for extension writers the code
-is worth studying.
+C<threads::shared> allows data sharing for interpreter threads, from
+Arthur Bergman. In the ithreads model any data sharing between
+threads must be explicit, as opposed to the old 5.005 thread model
+where data sharing was implicit. See L<threads::shared>.
=item *
-L<Attribute::Handlers> - Simpler definition of attribute handlers
+C<Tie::RefHash::Nestable>, by Edward Avis, allows storing hash
+references (unlike the standard Tie::RefHash) The module is contained
+within Tie::RefHash, see L<Tie::RefHash).
=item *
-L<ExtUtils::Constant> - generate XS code to import C header constants
+C<Time::HiRes> provides high resolution timing (ualarm, usleep,
+and gettimeofday), from Douglas E. Wegscheid. See L<Time::HiRes>.
=item *
-L<I18N::Langinfo> - query locale information
+C<Unicode::UCD> offers a querying interface to the Unicode Character
+Database. See L<Unicode::UCD>.
=item *
-L<I18N::LangTags> - functions for dealing with RFC3066-style language tags
+C<Unicode::Collate> implements the UCA (Unicode Collation Algorithm)
+for sorting Unicode strings, by SADAHIRO Tomoyuki. See L<Unicode::Collate>.
=item *
-L<libnet> - a collection of perl5 modules related to network programming
-
-Perl installation leaves libnet unconfigured, use F<libnetcfg> to configure.
+C<Unicode::Normalize> implements the various Unicode normalization
+forms, by SADAHIRO Tomoyuki. See L<Unicode::Normalize>.
=item *
-L<List::Util> - selection of general-utility list subroutines
-
-=item *
-
-L<Locale::Maketext> - framework for localization
-
-=item *
-
-L<Memoize> - Make your functions faster by trading space for time
-
-=item *
-
-L<NEXT> - pseudo-class for method redispatch
-
-=item *
-
-L<Scalar::Util> - selection of general-utility scalar subroutines
-
-=item *
-
-L<Test::More> - yet another framework for writing test scripts
-
-=item *
-
-L<Test::Simple> - Basic utilities for writing tests
-
-=item *
-
-L<threads> - interpreter threads
-
-=item *
-
-L<threads::shared> - data sharing for interpreter threads
-
-=item *
-
-L<Time::HiRes> - high resolution ualarm, usleep, and gettimeofday
-
-=item *
-
-L<Time::Piece> - Object Oriented time objects
-
-(Previously known as L<Time::Object>.)
-
-=item *
-
-L<Time::Seconds> - a simple API to convert seconds to other date values
-
-=item *
-
-L<Unicode::CD> - Unicode Character Database
-
-=item *
-
-Unicode::Collate - Unicode collation
-
-=item *
-
-Unicode::Normalize - Unicode normalization
+C<XS::Typemap>, by Tim Jenness, is a test extension that exercises XS
+typemaps. Nothing gets installed but for extension writers the code
+is worth studying.
=back
=item *
-The following independently supported modules have been updated to
-newer versions from CPAN: CGI, CPAN, DB_File, File::Spec, Getopt::Long,
-the podlators bundle, Pod::LaTeX, Pod::Parser, Term::ANSIColor, Test.
+The following independently supported modules have been updated to the
+newest versions from CPAN: CGI, CPAN, DB_File, File::Spec, File::Temp,
+Getopt::Long, Math::BigFloat, Math::BigInt, the podlators bundle
+(Pod::Man, Pod::Text), Pod::LaTeX, Pod::Parser, Storable,
+Term::ANSIColor, Test, Text-Tabs+Wrap.
=item *
-Bug fixes and minor enhancements have been applied to B::Deparse,
-Data::Dumper, IO::Poll, IO::Socket::INET, Math::BigFloat,
-Math::Complex, Math::Trig, Net::protoent, the re pragma, SelfLoader,
-Sys::SysLog, Test::Harness, Text::Wrap, UNIVERSAL, and the warnings
-pragma.
+The attributes::reftype() now works on tied arguments.
=item *
-The attributes::reftype() now works on tied arguments.
+AutoLoader can now be disabled with C<no AutoLoader;>,
=item *
-AutoLoader can now be disabled with C<no AutoLoader;>,
+Data::Dumper has now an option to sort hashes.
=item *
=item *
-B::Deparse should be now more robust. It still far from providing a full
-round trip for any random piece of Perl code, though, and is under active
-development: expect more robustness in 5.7.2.
+B::Deparse has been significantly enhanced. It now can deparse almost
+all of the standard test suite (so that the tests still succeed).
+There is a make target "test.deparse" for trying this out.
=item *
=item *
-Math::BigFloat has undergone much fixing, and in addition the fmod()
-function now supports modulus operations.
+Class::Struct now assigns the array/hash element if the accessor
+is called with an array/hash element as the B<sole> argument.
+
+=item *
+
+Fcntl, Socket, and Sys::Syslog have been rewritten to use the
+new-style constant dispatch section (see L<ExtUtils::Constant>).
-(The fixed Math::BigFloat module is also available in CPAN for those
-who can't upgrade their Perl: http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/J/JP/JPEACOCK/)
+=item *
+
+File::Find is now (again) reentrant. It also has been made
+more portable.
+
+=item *
+
+File::Glob now supports C<GLOB_LIMIT> constant to limit the size of
+the returned list of filenames.
=item *
=item *
-Net::Ping has been enhanced. There is now "external" protocol which
-uses Net::Ping::External module which runs external ping(1) and parses
-the output. An alpha version of Net::Ping::External is available in
-CPAN and in 5.7.2 the Net::Ping::External may be integrated to Perl.
-
-=item *
-
-The C<open> pragma allows layers other than ":raw" and ":crlf" when
-using PerlIO.
-
-=item *
-
-POSIX::sigaction() is now much more flexible and robust.
-You can now install coderef handlers, 'DEFAULT', and 'IGNORE'
-handlers, installing new handlers was not atomic.
-
-=item *
-
-The Test module has been significantly enhanced. Its use is
-greatly recommended for module writers.
-
-=item *
-
-The utf8:: name space (as in the pragma) provides various
-Perl-callable functions to provide low level access to Perl's
-internal Unicode representation. At the moment only length()
-has been implemented.
-
-=back
-
-The following modules have been upgraded from the versions at CPAN:
-CPAN, CGI, DB_File, File::Temp, Getopt::Long, Pod::Man, Pod::Text,
-Storable, Text-Tabs+Wrap.
-
-=item *
-
-L<B::Deparse> module has been significantly enhanced. It now
-can deparse almost all of the standard test suite (so that the
-tests still succeed). There is a make target "test.deparse"
-for trying this out.
-
-=item *
-
-L<Class::Struct> now assigns the array/hash element if the accessor
-is called with an array/hash element as the B<sole> argument.
-
-=item *
-
-L<Cwd> extension is now (even) faster.
+IO::Socket::INET now supports C<LocalPort> of zero (usually meaning
+that the operating system will make one up.)
=item *
-L<DB_File> extension has been updated to version 1.77.
+Math::BigFloat and Math::BigInt have undergone much fixing,
+they are now magnitudes faster, and they support various
+bignum libraries such as GMP and PARI as their backends.
=item *
-L<Fcntl>, L<Socket>, and L<Sys::Syslog> have been rewritten to use the
-new-style constant dispatch section (see L<ExtUtils::Constant>).
+Net::Ping has been enhanced. There is now "external" protocol which
+uses Net::Ping::External module which runs external ping(1) and parses
+the output. An alpha version of Net::Ping::External is available in
+CPAN and in 5.7.2 the Net::Ping::External may be integrated to Perl.
=item *
-L<File::Find> is now (again) reentrant. It also has been made
-more portable.
+The C<open> pragma allows layers other than ":raw" and ":crlf" when
+using PerlIO.
=item *
-L<File::Glob> now supports C<GLOB_LIMIT> constant to limit the
-size of the returned list of filenames.
+POSIX::sigaction() is now much more flexible and robust.
+You can now install coderef handlers, 'DEFAULT', and 'IGNORE'
+handlers, installing new handlers was not atomic.
=item *
-L<IO::Socket::INET> now supports C<LocalPort> of zero (usually meaning
-that the operating system will make one up.)
+The Test module has been significantly enhanced.
=item *
-The L<vars> pragma now supports declaring fully qualified variables.
+The C<vars> pragma now supports declaring fully qualified variables.
(Something that C<our()> does not and will not support.)
=item *
-List::Util now has shuffle() for randomizing a list.
+The utf8:: name space (as in the pragma) provides various
+Perl-callable functions to provide low level access to Perl's
+internal Unicode representation. At the moment only length()
+has been implemented.
=back
=item *
-The Emacs perl mode (emacs/cperl-mode.el) has been updated to version
+Emacs perl mode (emacs/cperl-mode.el) has been updated to version
4.31.
=item *
-Perlbug is now much more robust. It also sends the bug report to
-perl.org, not perl.com.
+F<emacs/e2ctags.pl> is now much faster.
=item *
-The perlcc utility has been rewritten and its user interface (that is,
-command line) is much more like that of the UNIX C compiler, cc.
+h2xs now produces a template README.
=item *
-The xsubpp utility for extension writers now understands POD
-documentation embedded in the *.xs files.
+L<h2ph> now supports C trigraphs.
=item *
-h2xs now produces template README.
+L<h2xs> uses the new L<ExtUtils::Constant> module which will affect
+newly created extensions that define constants. Since the new code is
+more correct (if you have two constants where the first one is a
+prefix of the second one, the first constant B<never> gets defined),
+less lossy (it uses integers for integer constant, as opposed to the
+old code that used floating point numbers even for integer constants),
+and slightly faster, you might want to consider regenerating your
+extension code (the new scheme makes regenerating easy).
+L<h2xs> now also supports C trigraphs.
=item *
-s2p has been completely rewritten in Perl. (It is in fact a full
-implementation of sed in Perl.)
+L<libnetcfg> has been added to configure the libnet.
=item *
-xsubpp now supports OUT keyword.
+perlbug is now much more robust. It also sends the bug report to
+perl.org, not perl.com.
=item *
-The F<emacs/e2ctags.pl> is now much faster.
+perlcc has been rewritten and its user interface (that is,
+command line) is much more like that of the UNIX C compiler, cc.
=item *
-L<h2ph> now supports C trigraphs.
+perlivp is a new utility for doing Installation Verification
+Procedure after installing Perl.
=item *
-L<h2xs> uses the new L<ExtUtils::Constant> module which will affect
-newly created extensions that define constants. Since the new code is
-more correct (if you have two constants where the first one is a
-prefix of the second one, the first constant B<never> gets defined),
-less lossy (it uses integers for integer constant, as opposed to the
-old code that used floating point numbers even for integer constants),
-and slightly faster, you might want to consider regenerating your
-extension code (the new scheme makes regenerating easy).
-L<h2xs> now also supports C trigraphs.
+pod2html now allows specifying a cache directory.
=item *
-L<libnetcfg> has been added to configure the libnet.
+s2p has been completely rewritten in Perl. (It is in fact a full
+implementation of sed in Perl.)
+
+=item *
+
+xsubpp now understands POD documentation embedded in the *.xs files.
=item *
-The F<Pod::Html> (and thusly L<pod2html>) now allows specifying
-a cache directory.
+xsubpp now supports OUT keyword.
=back
=item *
+perlclib documents the internal replacements for standard C library
+functions. (Interesting only for extension writers and Perl core
+hackers.)
+
+=item *
+
perldebtut is a Perl debugging tutorial.
=item *
=item *
+perliol documents the internals of PerlIO with layers.
+
+=item *
+
perlmodstyle is a style guide for writing modules.
=item *
=item *
+perltodo has been updated.
+
+=item *
+
perltootc has been renamed as perltooc (to not to conflict
-with perltoot in filesystem restricted to "8.3" names)
+with perltoot in filesystems restricted to "8.3" names)
=item *
=back
-=head2 perlclib
-
-Internal replacements for standard C library functions.
-(Interesting only for extension writers and Perl core hackers.)
-
-=head2 perliol
-
-Internals of PerlIO with layers.
-
-=head2 README.aix
-
-Documentation on compiling Perl on AIX has been added. AIX has
-several different C compilers and getting the right patch level
-is essential. On install README.aix will be installed as L<perlaix>.
+The following platform-specific documents are available before
+the installation as README.I<platform>, and after the installation
+as perlI<platform>:
-=head2 README.bs2000
-
-Documentation on compiling Perl on the POSIX-BC platform (an EBCDIC
-mainframe environment) has been added.
-
-This was formerly known as README.posix-bc but the name was considered
-to be too confusing (it has nothing to do with the POSIX module or the
-POSIX standard). On install README.bs2000 will be installed as L<perlbs2000>.
-
-=head2 README.macos
-
-In perl 5.7.1 (and in the 5.6.1) the MacPerl sources have been
-synchronised with the standard Perl sources. To compile MacPerl
-some additional steps are required, and this file documents those
-steps. On install README.macos will be installed as L<perlmacos>.
-
-=head2 README.mpeix
-
-The README.mpeix has been podified, which means that this information
-about compiling and using Perl on the MPE/iX miniframe platform will
-be installed as L<perlmpeix>.
-
-=head2 README.solaris
-
-README.solaris has been created and Solaris wisdom from elsewhere
-in the Perl documentation has been collected there. On install
-README.solaris will be installed as L<perlsolaris>.
-
-=head2 README.vos
-
-The README.vos has been podified, which means that this information
-about compiling and using Perl on the Stratus VOS miniframe platform
-will be installed as L<perlvos>.
-
-=head2 Porting/repository.pod
-
-Documentation on how to use the Perl source repository has been added.
+ perlaix perlamiga perlapollo perlbeos perlbs2000
+ perlce perlcygwin perldgux perldos perlepoc perlhpux
+ perlhurd perlmachten perlmacos perlmint perlmpeix
+ perlnetware perlos2 perlos390 perlplan9 perlqnx perlsolaris
+ perltru64 perluts perlvmesa perlvms perlvos perlwin32
=over 4
=item *
-L<Locale::Maketext::TPJ13> is an article about software localization,
-originally published in The Perl Journal #13, republished here with
-kind permission.
-
-=item *
-
-More README.$PLATFORM files have been converted into pod, which also
-means that they also be installed as perl$PLATFORM documentation
-files. The new files are L<perlapollo>, L<perlbeos>, L<perldgux>,
-L<perlhurd>, L<perlmint>, L<perlnetware>, L<perlplan9>, L<perlqnx>,
-and L<perltru64>.
-
-=item *
-
-The F<Todo> and F<Todo-5.6> files have been merged into L<perltodo>.
+The documentation for the POSIX-BC platform is called "BS2000", to avoid
+confusion with the Perl POSIX module.
=item *
-Use of the F<gprof> tool to profile Perl has been documented in
-L<perlhack>. There is a make target "perl.gprof" for generating a
-gprofiled Perl executable.
+The documentation for the WinCE platform is called "CE", to avoid
+confusion with the perlwin32 documentation on 8.3-restricted filesystems.
=back
=item *
-APPLLIB_EXP, a less-know configuration-time definition, has been
-documented. It can be used to prepend site-specific directories
-to Perl's default search path (@INC), see INSTALL for information.
-
-=item *
-
-Building Berkeley DB3 for compatibility modes for DB, NDBM, and ODBM
-has been documented in INSTALL.
-
-=item *
-
-If you are on IRIX or Tru64 platforms, new profiling/debugging options
-have been added, see L<perlhack> for more information about pixie and
-Third Degree.
-
-=item *
-
In AFS installations one can configure the root of the AFS to be
somewhere else than the default F</afs> by using the Configure
parameter C<-Dafsroot=/some/where/else>.
=item *
+APPLLIB_EXP, a less-know configuration-time definition, has been
+documented. It can be used to prepend site-specific directories
+to Perl's default search path (@INC), see INSTALL for information.
+
+=item *
+
The version of Berkeley DB used when the Perl (and, presumably, the
DB_File extension) was built is now available as
C<@Config{qw(db_version_major db_version_minor db_version_patch)}>
=item *
-The Thread extension is now not built at all under ithreads
-(C<Configure -Duseithreads>) because it wouldn't work anyway (the
-Thread extension requires being Configured with C<-Duse5005threads>).
+Building Berkeley DB3 for compatibility modes for DB, NDBM, and ODBM
+has been documented in INSTALL.
=item *
-The C<B::Deparse> compiler backend has been so significantly improved
-that almost the whole Perl test suite passes after being deparsed. A
-make target has been added to help in further testing: C<make test.deparse>.
-
-=back
-
-=head2 New Or Improved Platforms
+If you have CPAN access (either network or a local copy such as a
+CD-ROM) you can during specify extra modules to Configure to build and
+install with Perl using the -Dextras=... option. See INSTALL for
+more details.
-For the list of platforms known to support Perl,
-see L<perlport/"Supported Platforms">.
+=item *
-=over 4
+In addition to config.over a new override file, config.arch, is
+available. That is supposed to be used by hints file writers for
+architecture-wide changes (as opposed to config.over which is for
+site-wide changes).
=item *
-AIX dynamic loading should be now better supported.
+For Perl developers several new make targets for profiling
+and debugging have been added, see L<perlhack>.
+
+=over 8
=item *
-After a long pause, AmigaOS has been verified to be happy with Perl.
+Use of the F<gprof> tool to profile Perl has been documented in
+L<perlhack>. There is a make target called "perl.gprof" for
+generating a gprofiled Perl executable.
=item *
-EBCDIC platforms (z/OS, also known as OS/390, POSIX-BC, and VM/ESA)
-have been regained. Many test suite tests still fail and the
-co-existence of Unicode and EBCDIC isn't quite settled, but the
-situation is much better than with Perl 5.6. See L<perlos390>,
-L<perlbs2000> (for POSIX-BC), and L<perlvmesa> for more information.
+If you have GCC 3, there is a make target called "perl.gcov" for
+creating a gcoved Perl executable for coverage analysis. See
+L<perlhack>.
=item *
-Building perl with -Duseithreads or -Duse5005threads now works under
-HP-UX 10.20 (previously it only worked under 10.30 or later). You will
-need a thread library package installed. See README.hpux.
+If you are on IRIX or Tru64 platforms, new profiling/debugging options
+have been added, see L<perlhack> for more information about pixie and
+Third Degree.
+
+=back
=item *
-MacOS Classic (MacPerl has of course been available since
-perl 5.004 but now the source code bases of standard Perl
-and MacPerl have been synchronised)
+Guidelines of how to construct minimal Perl installations have
+been added to INSTALL.
=item *
-NCR MP-RAS is now supported.
+The Thread extension is now not built at all under ithreads
+(C<Configure -Duseithreads>) because it wouldn't work anyway (the
+Thread extension requires being Configured with C<-Duse5005threads>).
-=item *
+But note that the Thread.pm interface is now shared by both
+thread models.
-NonStop-UX is now supported.
+=back
-=item *
+=head2 New Or Improved Platforms
-Amdahl UTS is now supported.
+For the list of platforms known to support Perl,
+see L<perlport/"Supported Platforms">.
+
+=over 4
=item *
-z/OS (formerly known as OS/390, formerly known as MVS OE) has now
-support for dynamic loading. This is not selected by default,
-however, you must specify -Dusedl in the arguments of Configure.
+AIX dynamic loading should be now better supported.
=item *
=item *
+After a long pause, AmigaOS has been verified to be happy with Perl.
+
+=item *
+
AtheOS (http://www.atheos.cx/) is a new platform.
=item *
=item *
-Several MacOS (Classic) portability patches have been applied. We
-hope to get a fully working port by 5.8.0. (The remaining problems
-relate to the changed IO model of Perl.) See L<perlmacos>.
+EBCDIC platforms (z/OS, also known as OS/390, POSIX-BC, and VM/ESA)
+have been regained. Many test suite tests still fail and the
+co-existence of Unicode and EBCDIC isn't quite settled, but the
+situation is much better than with Perl 5.6. See L<perlos390>,
+L<perlbs2000> (for POSIX-BC), and L<perlvmesa> for more information.
=item *
-MacOS X (or Darwin) should now be able to build Perl even on HFS+
-filesystems. (The case-insensitivity confused the Perl build process.)
+Building perl with -Duseithreads or -Duse5005threads now works under
+HP-UX 10.20 (previously it only worked under 10.30 or later). You will
+need a thread library package installed. See README.hpux.
=item *
-NetWare from Novell is now supported. See L<perlnetware>.
+MacOS Classic (MacPerl has of course been available since
+perl 5.004 but now the source code bases of standard Perl
+and MacPerl have been synchronised)
=item *
-The Amdahl UTS UNIX mainframe platform is now supported.
+MacOS X (or Darwin) should now be able to build Perl even on HFS+
+filesystems. (The case-insensitivity confused the Perl build process.)
=item *
-WinCE is now supported. See L<perlce>.
+NCR MP-RAS is now supported.
=item *
-If you have CPAN access you can during specify extra modules to
-Configure to build and install with Perl using the -Dextras=...
-option. See INSTALL for more details.
+NetWare from Novell is now supported. See L<perlnetware>.
=item *
-In addition to config.over a new override file, config.arch, is
-available. That is supposed to be used by hints file writers for
-architecture-wide changes (as opposed to config.over which is for
-site-wide changes).
+NonStop-UX is now supported.
=item *
-Guidelines of how to construct minimal Perl installations have
-been added to INSTALL.
+Amdahl UTS UNIX mainframe platform is now supported.
=item *
-For Perl developers several new make targets for profiling
-have been added, see L<perlhack>.
+WinCE is now supported. See L<perlce>.
+
+=item *
+
+z/OS (formerly known as OS/390, formerly known as MVS OE) has now
+support for dynamic loading. This is not selected by default,
+however, you must specify -Dusedl in the arguments of Configure.
=back
=item *
-Some new Configure symbols, useful for extension writers:
-
-=over 8
-
-=item d_cmsghdr
-
-For struct cmsghdr.
-
-=item d_fcntl_can_lock
-
-Whether fcntl() can be used for file locking.
-
-=item d_fsync
-
-=item d_getitimer
-
-=item d_getpagsz
-
-For getpagesize(), though you should prefer POSIX::sysconf(_SC_PAGE_SIZE))
-
-=item d_msghdr_s
-
-For struct msghdr.
-
-=item need_va_copy
-
-Whether one needs to use Perl_va_copy() to copy varargs.
-
-=item d_readv
-
-=item d_recvmsg
-
-=item d_sendmsg
-
-=item sig_size
-
-The number of elements in an array needed to hold all the available signals.
-
-=item d_sockatmark
-
-=item d_strtoq
-
-=item d_u32align
-
-Whether one needs to access character data aligned by U32 sized pointers.
-
-=item d_ualarm
-
-=item d_usleep
-
-=back
-
-=item *
-
-Removed Configure symbols: the PDP-11 memory model settings: huge,
-large, medium, models.
-
-=item *
-
SOCKS support is now much more robust.
=item *
=item *
-Perl now uses system malloc instead of Perl malloc on all 64-bit
-platforms, and even in some not-always-64-bit platforms like AIX,
-IRIX, and Solaris. This change breaks backward compatibility but
-Perl's malloc has problems with large address spaces and also the
-speed of vendors' malloc is generally better in large address space
-machines (Perl's malloc is mostly tuned for space).
+PERL_OBJECT has been completely removed.
+
+=item *
+
+Documentation on how to use the Perl source repository has been added
+to F<Porting/repository.pod>.
=item *
-PERL_OBJECT has been completely removed.
+There are now several profiling make targets
+
+=item *
+
+The C<op_clear> and C<op_null> are now exported.
=back
L<Sys::Syslog> ignored the C<LOG_AUTH> constant.
-=back
-
-=head2 Platform Specific Changes and Fixes
-
-=over 4
-
=item *
Some versions of glibc have a broken modfl(). This affects builds
and has a workaround for it. The glibc release 2.2.2 is known to have
fixed the modfl() bug.
-=back
-
-=head2 Platform Specific Changes and Fixes
-
-=over 4
-
=item *
Linux previously had problems related to sockaddrlen when using
projects / p5sagit/p5-mst-13.2.git / commitdiff