ActiveState is pleased to announce ActivePerl 5.10.0 Build 1000 Beta, a beta release of the complete, ready-to-install Perl distribution for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Solaris, and AIX.
This build is based on the first release candidate of the Perl 5.10 source code. Since Perl 5.10 is not yet complete, this build is designated as a Beta and will be followed by a final build once Perl 5.10 is officially released. Please use this beta build to try out new features in Perl 5.10 and to test source level compatibility of your existing Perl code under this new release (note that Perl 5.10 is not binary compatible to earlier releases). For detailed information or to download this beta release, see: http://www.activestate.com/Products/activeperl/beta_download.plex New in ActivePerl 5.10.0 Build 1000 Beta ======================================== Some exciting new features to look for: * The new switch statement and smart-match operator The new smart-matching operator ~~ compares two expressions with each other; the exact nature of the match is being determined by the types of both expressions: matching a string and hash will return if the hash contains a key equal to the string; matching a regular expression against an array will return if any element of the array matched successfully against the regexp etc. The new switch statement will smart-match a single expression repeatedly against a list of other expression until one matches. For example: given($foo) { when ("foo") { say '$foo is the string "foo"'; } when ([1,3,5,7,9]) { say '$foo is an odd digit'; continue; # Fall through } when ($_ < 100) { say '$foo is numerically less than 100'; } default { die q(I don't know what to do with $foo); } } * Defined-or operator The new defined-or operator // allows you to write $a // $b instead of repeating the first argument as in defined $a ? $a : $b Also the statement $c //= $d; can now be used instead of $c = $d unless defined $c; * Many improvements to the regular expression engine, including: The regular expression engine is no longer recursive, meaning that patterns that used to overflow the stack will either die with useful explanations, or run to completion, which, since they were able to blow the stack before, will likely take a very long time to happen. - It is now possible to write recursive patterns that are easy to read (for a regular expression), and are executed in an efficient manner. - It is now possible to name capturing parenthesis in a pattern and refer to the captured contents by name. The naming syntax is (?<NAME>....). It's possible to backreference to a named buffer with the \k<NAME> syntax. After the match the named capture groups are accessible via the %+ hash: my $value = "foo 42"; if ($value =~ /^(?<name>\w+) \s* (?<number>\d+)$/x) { say "Name $+{name} and Number $+{number}"; } - possessive quantifiers - backtracking control verbs - relative backreferences Other new features include: * new say() function * lexical $_ variable * _ prototype * UNITCHECK blocks * state variables * stacked filetest operators * byte-order modifiers for pack() and unpack() * Many bug fixes * Additional core modules * Extended documentation Download ActivePerl 5.10.0 Build 1000 Beta now: http://www.activestate.com/Products/activeperl/beta_download.plex Getting Started =============== Whether you're a first-time user or a long-time fan, our free resources will help you get the most from ActivePerl. Mailing list archives: http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Mail/Browse/Threaded/ActivePerl Feedback ======== Everyone is encouraged to participate in making Perl an even better language. For bugs related to ActiveState use: http://bugs.activestate.com/enter_bug.cgi?product=ActivePerl&version=1000 For bugs related directly to Perl please use the 'perlbug' utility. Enjoy! _______________________________________________ Perl-Win32-Users mailing list Perl-Win32-Users@listserv.ActiveState.com To unsubscribe: http://listserv.ActiveState.com/mailman/mysubs
