coordinated (while 5.8.0 was still called 5.7.something).
Changes that were integrated into the 5.6.1 release are marked C<[561]>.
+In some cases the said bug/feature may have been further fixed/enhanced
+after 5.6.1.
You can see the list of changes in the 5.6.1 (from 5.6.0) by reading
L<perl561delta>.
(at the source code level) for the stdio interface.
Depending on your platform, there are also other reasons why
-we decided to break binary compatibility, please read on.
+we decided to break binary compatibility, please read on.
=head2 64-bit platforms and malloc
arithmetics. (Previously Perl always preferred floating point numbers
in its math.)
+=head2 Arrays now always interpolate into double-quoted strings [561]
+
+In double-quoted strings, arrays now interpolate, no matter what. The
+behavior in earlier versions of perl 5 was that arrays would interpolate
+into strings if the array had been mentioned before the string was
+compiled, and otherwise Perl would raise a fatal compile-time error.
+In versions 5.000 through 5.003, the error was
+
+ Literal @example now requires backslash
+
+In versions 5.004_01 through 5.6.0, the error was
+
+ In string, @example now must be written as \@example
+
+The idea here was to get people into the habit of writing
+C<"fred\@example.com"> when they wanted a literal C<@> sign, just as
+they have always written C<"Give me back my \$5"> when they wanted a
+literal C<$> sign.
+
+Starting with 5.6.1, when Perl now sees an C<@> sign in a
+double-quoted string, it I<always> attempts to interpolate an array,
+regardless of whether or not the array has been used or declared
+already. The fatal error has been downgraded to an optional warning:
+
+ Possible unintended interpolation of @example in string
+
+This warns you that C<"fred@example.com"> is going to turn into
+C<fred.com> if you don't backslash the C<@>.
+See http://www.plover.com/~mjd/perl/at-error.html for more details
+about the history here.
+
=head2 Miscellaneous Changes
=over 4
The builtin dump() now gives an optional warning
C<dump() better written as CORE::dump()>,
-meaning that by default C<dump(...)> is resolved as the builtin
+meaning that by default C<dump(...)> is resolved as the builtin
dump() which dumps core and aborts, not as (possibly) user-defined
C<sub dump>. To call the latter, qualify the call as C<&dump(...)>.
(The whole dump() feature is to considered deprecated, and possibly
=item *
END blocks are now run even if you exit/die in a BEGIN block.
-Internally, the execution of END blocks is now controlled by
+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 *
-prototype(\&) is now available.
+The (\&) prototype now works properly. [561]
=item *
Use of the C</c> match modifier without an accompanying C</g> modifier
elicits a new warning: C<Use of /c modifier is meaningless without /g>.
-Use of C</c> in substitutions, even with C</g>, elicits
-C<Use of /c modifier is meaningless in s///>.
+Use of C</c> in substitutions, even with C</g>, elicits
+C<Use of /c modifier is meaningless in s///>.
Use of C</g> with C<split> elicits C<Use of /g modifier is meaningless
in split>.
=item *
-Fcntl, Socket, and Sys::Syslog have been rewritten by Nicholas Clark
+Fcntl, Socket, and Sys::Syslog have been rewritten by Nicholas Clark
to use the new-style constant dispatch section (see L<ExtUtils::Constant>).
This means that they will be more robust and hopefully faster.
=item *
-File::Glob::glob() renamed to File::Glob::bsd_glob() to avoid
-prototype mismatch with CORE::glob(). [561]
+File::Glob::glob() has been renamed to File::Glob::bsd_glob()
+because the name clashes with the builtin glob(). The older
+name is still available for compatibility, but is deprecated. [561]
=item *
=item *
+IO::Socket::INET failed to open the specified port if the service name
+was not known. It now correctly uses the supplied port number as is. [561]
+
+=item *
+
IO::Socket::INET has support for the ReusePort option (if your
platform supports it). The Reuse option now has an alias, ReuseAddr.
For clarity, you may want to prefer ReuseAddr.
=item *
+sort() is also fully reentrant, in the sense that the sort function
+can itself call sort(). This did not work reliably in previous
+releases. [561]
+
+=item *
+
sort() has been changed to use primarily mergesort internally as
opposed to the earlier quicksort. For very small lists this may
result in slightly slower sorting times, but in general the speedup
=item *
-Configure C<-S> can now run non-interactively.
+Configure C<-S> can now run non-interactively. [561]
=item *
=item *
-Mac OS 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)
+Mac OS Classic is now supported in the mainstream source package
+(MacPerl has of course been available since perl 5.004 but now the
+source code bases of standard Perl and MacPerl have been synchronised)
+[561]
=item *
=item *
Perl has been tested with the GNU pth userlevel thread package
-( http://www.gnu.org/software/pth/pth.html ) . All but one thread
-test worked, and that one failure was because of test results arriving
-in unexpected order.
+( http://www.gnu.org/software/pth/pth.html ). All thread tests
+of Perl now work, but not without adding some yield()s to the tests,
+so while pth (and other userlevel thread implementations) can be
+considered to be "working" with Perl ithreads, keep in mind the
+possible non-preemptability of the underlying thread implementation.
=item *
=item *
-Perl 5.6.0 could emit spurious warnings about redefinition of dl_error()
-when statically building extensions into perl. This has been corrected. [561]
+Perl 5.6.0 could emit spurious warnings about redefinition of
+dl_error() when statically building extensions into perl.
+This has been corrected. [561]
=item *
=item *
-our() variables will not cause "will not stay shared" warnings.
+our() variables will not cause bogus "Variable will not stay shared"
+warnings. [561]
=item *
NetBSD/threads: try installing the GNU pth (should be in the
packages collection, or http://www.gnu.org/software/pth/),
-and Configure with -Duseithreads.
+and Configure with -Duseithreads.
=item *
Fixed various alignment problems that lead into core dumps either
during build or later; no longer dies on math errors at runtime;
-now using full quad integers (64 bits), previously was using
+now using full quad integers (64 bits), previously was using
only 46 bit integers for speed.
=item *
The C<waitpid> emulation has been improved. The worst bug (now fixed)
was that a pid of -1 would cause a wildcard search of all processes on
-the system.
+the system.
POSIX-style signals are now emulated much better on VMS versions prior
to 7.0.
user's default privileges, which could sometimes result in a mismatch
between reported access and actual access.
-There is a new C<kill> implementation based on C<sys$sigprc> that allows
+There is a new C<kill> implementation based on C<sys$sigprc> that allows
older VMS systems (pre-7.0) to use C<kill> to send signals rather than
simply force exit. This implementation also allows later systems to
call C<kill> from within a signal handler.
=item *
+ExtUtils::MakeMaker now uses $ENV{LIB} to search for libraries.
+
+=item *
+
Fake signal handling reenabled, bugs and all.
=item *
=item *
+Non-blocking waits for child processes (or pseudo-processes) are
+supported via C<waitpid($pid, &POSIX::WNOHANG)>.
+
+=item *
+
Win64 compilation is now supported.
=item *
The various "opened only for", "on closed", "never opened" warnings
drop the C<main::> prefix for filehandles in the C<main> package,
-for example C<STDIN> instead of C<main::STDIN>.
+for example C<STDIN> instead of C<main::STDIN>.
=item *
Certain regex modifiers such as C<(?o)> make sense only if applied to
the entire regex. You will get an optional warning if you try to do
-otherwise.
+otherwise.
=item *
=head2 UNICOS/mk
-=head2 VOS (Stratus)
-
-When Perl is built using the native build process on VOS Release
-14.5.0 and GNU C++/GNU Tools 2.0.1, all attempted tests either
-pass or result in TODO (ignored) failures.
-
=over 4
=item *
There are a few known test failures, see L<perluts> (README.uts).
+=head2 VOS (Stratus)
+
+When Perl is built using the native build process on VOS Release
+14.5.0 and GNU C++/GNU Tools 2.0.1, all attempted tests either
+pass or result in TODO (ignored) failures.
+
=head2 VMS
There should be no reported test failures with a default configuration,
projects / p5sagit/p5-mst-13.2.git / commitdiff