Perl 6 mailing list summary for the month of May 2006
Summary updates
This post continues with the task of addressing the Perl 6 summary backlog.
The following schedule is planned for the remaining updates:
* 6 August: June
* 13 August: July
* 20 August: August to date
After the 20th of August I hope to return the summaries to a weekly
schedule.
Users
perl6-users mailing list <http://xrl.us/pueg>
Ask Bj??rn Hansen announced the creation of the perl6-users mailing list on
May 17th, 2006.
Perl 6 Users FAQ (perl.perl6.users) -- Version: 2006-05-18
(s/newsgroup/mailing list/) <http://xrl.us/pueh>
Conrad Schneiker posted the Perl 6 User FAQ.
perl6-users or perl6-meta? <http://xrl.us/puei>
Markus Laire asked about the state of perl6-meta, now that perl6-users has
been created. Conrad Schneiker replied that perl6-users would be used.
Where can I find a Perl 6 language reference? <http://xrl.us/puej>
Thomas Wittek wondered if the best language reference for Perl 6 was the
synopses, pugs-doc, or another resource. A. Pagaltzis recommended pugs-doc,
and gave the URL to a getting started document. Michael Mathews added that
he was looking for a step-by-step guide to installing Perl 6. David Romano
described his own build process, and noted that the INSTALL file explains
the process in greater detail. A couple of other people offered suggestions
or mentioned their own documentation questions.
Windows Binaries for Pugs <http://xrl.us/puek>
Chris Yocum noted that there were some slightly out-of-date Windows
binaries of Pugs available. James Peregrino wondered if binaries were
worthwhile, given the speed of development. Jonathan Scott Duff felt that
they were appropriate for people looking to dabble. Rutger Vos was in favor
of nightly builds.
Perl 6 User FAQ (perl.perl6.users) -- Latest version now on web.
<http://xrl.us/puem>
Conrad Schneiker reported that the user FAQ had been updated and offered a
link.
Latest additions (links, release highlights to Perl 6 Users FAQ
<http://xrl.us/puen>
Conrad Schneiker listed the latest additions to the Perl 6 Users FAQ and
noted that it can be found at www.athenalab.com <http://xrl.us/pueo>.
parrot and pugs builds for os x <http://xrl.us/puep>
David Romano created packages of Pugs and Parrot for OS X and asked people
to try them. Michael Mathews reported success. The download location for
the packages was discussed.
(Existing) Perl 6 Wiki: (http://perl.net.au/wiki/Perl_6).
<http://xrl.us/prj9>
In an earlier thread <http://xrl.us/pris>, it was suggested that perhaps a
Perl 6 wiki to keep information on Pugs progress up-to-date would be
useful.
Conrad Schneiker posted about a wiki site with good policies that might be
suitable, and Paul Fenwick, an admin from the site, expressed his
willingness to help out. Juerd, however, thought it would be nice to not
just write about Perl 6 in the wiki, but to create the wiki software in
Perl 6.
Conrad posted addition details in another thread <http://xrl.us/prka>.
The wiki came up again <http://xrl.us/prkd>, with Conrad and Juerd posting
on the merits of various options. JMD added a comment as well.
Perl 6 and Parrot links <http://xrl.us/pueq>
Jurosz Michal referenced a wiki page containing Perl 6 and Parrot links
<http://xrl.us/puer>.
perl 6 hosting? <http://xrl.us/pues>
Michael Mathews wondered if there was any possibility of finding an
environment with Perl 6 installed so that people could dabble in it without
having to install all the required software and keep it updated. Security
concerns were pointed out. Chris Yocum proposed regular binary
distributions to make installation easier. There was continued discussion
on how to address the security issues.
Simple Print/Say Question <http://xrl.us/puet>
Chris Yocum got stuck converting a program from Perl 5 to Perl 6. The
difficulty involved joining elements of an array in to a string. Gabor
Szabo offered alternate syntax, and several people reported that both the
original and Gabor's version worked for them. The problem was identified in
another portion of Chris's code.
eval <http://xrl.us/pueu>
Gabor Szabo asked what [EMAIL PROTECTED] is in Pugs. Yuval Kogman replied
that it is
`$!` and linked to the exception handlers documentation. He also mentioned
`try`. Michael Mathews asked for a working example of try and CATCH. David
Romano thought CATCH hadn't been implemented yet.
3 Good Reasons... <http://xrl.us/puev>
Michael Mathews asked if people could contribute compelling reasons for
managers to switch from Perl 5 to Perl 6, because the syntax is so
different that it is in essence a new language. Daniel Hulme shared his
love of the type system. Ovid felt the strength of Perl 6 is in the object
system, and the fact that it interacts well with other languages. Several
other people responded with their thoughts.
Logic Programming for Perl6 (Was Re: 3 Good Reasons... (typo alert!))
<http://xrl.us/puew>
The earlier thread 3 Good Reasons... <http://xrl.us/puev> spawned a
discussion of logic programming. Previously, Ovid had expressed his concern
about Perl 6 not including support for logic programming, but noted that
this was a mixed blessing since it is usually implemented incorrectly.
David Romano was curious about what problems Ovid saw with adding support
for logic programming in Perl 6. Ovid elaborated.
Larry Wall added that perhaps perl6-language was a better location for the
discussion. Ovid started a new thread in that group: Fw: Logic Programming
for Perl6 (Was Re: 3 Good Reasons... (typo alert!)) <http://xrl.us/prkf>.
perldoc or pod parser in Perl6 <http://xrl.us/puex>
Gabor Szabo asked if there was a perldoc command or pod parser implemented
in Perl 6.
Introductions; P6 wiki <http://xrl.us/puey>
Paul Fenwick brought up the idea of a wiki for Perl 6, which was also
mentioned in thread (Existing) Perl 6 Wiki:
(http://perl.net.au/wiki/Perl_6). <http://xrl.us/prj9>. He made a reference
to implementing the wiki in Perl 6; Ovid responded with a proposal on how
someone might accomplish that.
$1,000 prize for Perl 6 Wiki written in Perl 6 <http://xrl.us/puez>
Continuing with the discussion of a wiki in Perl 6, previously mentioned in
Introductions; P6 wiki <http://xrl.us/puey>, Conrad Schneiker announced a
reward for the person who delivers the first Perl 6 wiki. He defined how
the winner would be determined and the money distributed. There were
discussions on the specifications for the project. There was also a call
for a wiki on Perl 6 to be created immediately, without adding the delay of
rewriting wiki software in Perl 6. People were also interested in comparing
markdown with mediawiki syntax.
CGI on 6 <http://xrl.us/pue2>
In reference to the wiki challenge ($1,000 prize for Perl 6 Wiki written in
Perl 6 <http://xrl.us/puez>), Michael Mathews asked about CGI on Perl 6.
Conrad Schneiker offered some links with example code. Ovid thought the
interface would be taken from Perl 5 and noted that now was a good time to
note any complaints with Perl 5 modules. He also pointed out that the
cookbook Conrad referenced was missing a lot of detail, and thought Audrey
Tang would welcome any material. Several other people also volunteered
information.
Relationship between pugs and parrot/language/perl6 <http://xrl.us/pue3>
Rob asked about the relationship between Pugs and the Perl 6 implementation
found under languages in Parrot. Audrey Tang replied that Parrot/Perl 6
project is one of three independent implementations of Perl 6, with the
other two being 'lrep', and, naturally, Pugs. She explained the reasons
behind the different projects.
Minimum modules for Production? <http://xrl.us/pue4>
Ovid tried to compile a list of 'must have' modules that will be needed in
Perl 6 for it to be used in production. Other people added their
suggestions. The following modules were mentioned: DBI, Template toolkit,
DateTime, CGI, an object-relational mapper, mod_perl6, an HTML parser, LWP,
Test::More, and XML::Parser.
Amir E. Aharoni said that he'd like to see modules in the core if they were
worth mentioning in books like 'The Perl Cookbook' and 'Perl Best
Practices'. Darren Duncan said that the Perl 6 distribution would be small,
with other modules available on CPAN. Larry Wall replied that people would
be encouraged to form standard distributions. Some other people joined the
discussion.
RE: [#59132406] perl.perl6.users MIA <http://xrl.us/pue5>
Conrad Schneiker reported the absence of perl6-users to Google groups.
There was some discussion of Google's group-adding policy, and a request to
have it added to Gmane as well.
This group was eventually added to both Google and Gmane, but archives were
not included, as anyone clicking on the perl6-users links in this summary
probably noticed.
Language
A shorter long dot
<http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl6.language/browse_frm/thread/3721a9d21aa77dab/ad96bf632f64ecc8?#ad96bf632f64ecc8>
In the previous month, there was a fair amount of discussion on the long
dot. May saw more of the topic, which was kicked off by Juerd. Several
people dislike `. .` and alternatives were proposed. The alternatives did
not enjoy universal support either.
[svn:perl6-synopsis] r9076 / my ($foo, *, $bar) = 1..3 <http://xrl.us/prih>
In reply to a commit by Audrey Tang, James Mastros asked if `my ($foo, *,
$bar) = 1..3` is legal but undocumented Perl 6. Audrey replied that it
probably was and requested a use case example. James was not able to come
up with one at the time.
Linking Synopses to corresponding pod-files? <http://xrl.us/prir>
Markus Laire noted that if synopses referenced their POD files it would be
easier to submit patches for the typographical errors he sometimes spots.
Juerd replied that replacing 'html' with 'pod' in the file name provided
the solution.
RFC: Community education page <http://xrl.us/pris>
David K Storrs referred to the oft-encountered perspective that Perl 6 is
taking a long time and that nothing has been accomplished. He proposed a
single web page which could display important progress benchmarks, and
offered to create, host and maintain the page if it was seen as a good
idea. There were a couple of suggestions, including Juerd's somewhat
unrelated request for an up-to-date wiki covering Pugs.
using the newer collection types <http://xrl.us/prit>
Darren Duncan asked some questions to clarify the syntax of features of
newer types to aid him in his work on implementing a Relation type for Perl
6. He received many replies. Two additional topics were spawned: 'relations
as roles' and 'using the newer collection types - Interval'.
[S05] /ee <http://xrl.us/priu>
Ruud H.G. van Tol asked a question about whether eval was block (try) or
string in a particular context. Juerd tried to answer.
"normalized" hash-keys <http://xrl.us/priz>
Ruud H.G. van Tol asked how one would define that a specific hash has keys
which are not case-sensitive. Some people responded with recollections of a
synopsis which addressed this but no reference was found. Larry Wall
offered his thoughts on how this would work.
Scans <http://xrl.us/pri2>
Gaal Yahas asked how one could express scans (a generalization of
reductions) in Perl 6. The reduce meta operator was subsequently modified
to return scans when invoked in list context. Whether this is actually a
good thing is yet to be decided ;-)
A rule by any other name... <http://xrl.us/pri6>
Allison Randal wrote about her concern that 'regex' will always mean
'regular expression' to people who encounter it, and proposed a different
name for a 'thingy outside a grammar,' as she described it. She went on to
list other semantic issues that she has with Perl 6. The thread was highly
popular and many people contributed.
the 'postfix:::' operator <http://xrl.us/pri9>
Jerry Gay noted that if the :: postfix operator exists, it should be added
to S03.
S02: generalized quotes and adverbs <http://xrl.us/prja>
The adverb section in S02 led Jerry Gay to wonder if parsing of an adjacent
single and double (for instance 'q' and 'qq' to form 'qqq') would be
accomplished by matching the longest token first. Larry replied that he
would like to see if double character adverbs can be made single
characters. He also offered suggestions on how clarity could be added in
this situation.
r9176 and the difference between True and true <http://xrl.us/prjb>
Audrey's commit changed 'true' to 'True', which led to Elyse M. Grasso
wondering if 'false' had become 'False'. Larry said this was the case, and
that the reason for changing them had been to avoid confusion with the
built-in `true()` function. Nicholas Clark and Smylers were slightly
skeptical.
r9197 and a new name for sigspace? <http://xrl.us/prjd>
A commit led to a discussion on a possible new name for `sigspace`. Allison
Randal, Nicholas Clark, Ruud H.G. van Tol, Larry Wall, Smylers, and
Chromatic participated. Suggestions ranged from 'SIGSPACE' to 'gappy' to
'negative space'.
best of perl6 for tutorial <http://xrl.us/prjh>
Herbert Breunung asked for examples of instances where Perl 6 simplifies
Perl 5 code. These will be used in his tutorial, which will eventually be
translated and added to the Pugs trunk. Thomas Wittek suggested writing in
English, but Herbert explained that it is much easier for him to make
modifications in his native tongue.
[svn:perl6-synopsis] r9216 - doc/trunk/design/syn <http://xrl.us/prjj>
Larry Wall made a commit to remove Prefix * and **. Also, triangulation in
list context now requires an explicit `[\*]`. Markus Laire inquired if
[EMAIL PROTECTED];**;5]` was still possible with the new syntax, and Larry
replied
with a note that he should revisit S09.
Perl 6 User FAQ (perl.perl6.meta) -- Version: 2006-05-13 (beta 2)
<http://xrl.us/prjq>
Conrad Schneiker cross-posted the Perl 6 User FAQ from comp.perl6.meta. He
asked if anyone could get Google Groups to pick up comp.perl6.meta, and
requested feedback on the FAQ.
Parrot 0.4.4 "Feather" Released! <http://xrl.us/prmo>
Leopold Toetsch announced the release of the newest monthly version of
Parrot.
ACID transactions for in-memory data structures <http://xrl.us/prjs>
Rob Kinyon, who was working on DBM::Deep, asked if it would be easy to add
ACID transactions in Perl 6. Audrey Tang pointed him toward 'is atomic' in
the S17 draft. Sam Vilain noted the topic had come up in another list and
should be brought up again.
DBI2 reborn with DBI1 facade <http://xrl.us/pue6>
Jonathan Scott Duff had a question on the state of DBI in Perl 6 and on the
API redesign DBI2. Tim Bunce answered that DBI2 had been put on hold, but
Szilakszi B??linthad a good proposal on DBI for Pugs. He added that dbi2-dev
was the best mailing list for further discussion, but that perl6-language
was appropriate for Perl 6 issues.
packages vs. classes <http://xrl.us/prm5>
Chip Salzenberg asked what the relationship was between namespaces and
classes. Larry Wall replied that namespaces are for declaration names,
while classes can really only name things operationally. Further discussion
ensued.
hyp-op examples of a Bag type in S03 <http://xrl.us/prj3>
Darren Duncan had a question about Bag and Set in S03. Sam Vilain
responded. Darren noted that r9304 had addressed his concerns.
Fw: Logic Programming for Perl6 (Was Re: 3 Good Reasons... (typo alert!))
<http://xrl.us/prkf>
Ovid forwarded a thread which had previously been posted on perl6-users
(Logic Programming for Perl6 (Was Re: 3 Good Reasons... (typo alert!))
<http://xrl.us/puew>). In it, David Romano and Ovid were discussing the
obstacles that would limit Perl 6's support of logic programming. Several
other people joined in with suggestions.
outdated/incorrect S12 examples <http://xrl.us/prkh>
Darren Duncan asked whether or not `self` is a valid bareword in Perl 6.
Stuart Cook replied that he thought it was valid but Darren wasn't sure.
Synchronized / Thread syntax in Perl 6 <http://xrl.us/prkj>
John Drago mused on the syntax of classes that can only be accessed by one
thread at a time. Many participants donated their opinion and debated how
to perform parallel job execution.
Concurrency: hypothetical variables and atomic blocks <http://xrl.us/prkk>
Jonathan Lang asked if an STM style async block is semantically different
from a block in which all variables are hypothetical let-variables. The
thread continued discussing the definition of Software Transactional
Memory, how it applies to Perl, and the relationship between ACID and
virtualized time.
Parrot Porters
The parrot-porters list was called perl6-internals during the period
covered by this summary.
[perl #39013] [PATCH] Two more uninitialized registers <http://xrl.us/prkn>
Andy Dougherty created a ticket, [perl #39013] <http://xrl.us/pue7>, which
contains a patch for some tests. Will Coleda applied.
[perl #39038] [BUG] linker failure with dynpmc on win32 <http://xrl.us/pcan>
Jerry Gay reported in [perl #39038] <http://xrl.us/pue8> that dynamic pmcs
are causing linkage.
[perl #39043] [TODO] Dynamic PMCs should not include 'parrot/parrot.h'
<http://xrl.us/prkp>
Bernhard Schmalhofer added [perl #39043] <http://xrl.us/pue9>, a todo item
for cleaning up header includes.
[perl #39044] Problem with :slurpy, :slurpy :named, :flat :named
<http://xrl.us/prkq>
Patrick R. Michaud created ticket [perl #39044] <http://xrl.us/pufa> after
several people asked him to file a report for the failing test in
`t/op/calling.t`. The problem was that Parrot did not correctly handle
`:slurpy` and `:slurpy :named` both appearing in parameter lists. Leopold
Toetsch fixed the bug.
[perl #39045] [BUG] "isa" opcode doesn't (yet) work with keyed classnames
<http://xrl.us/prkr>
Patrick R. Michaud created ticket [perl #39045] <http://xrl.us/pufb> in
order to note that the "isa" opcode doesn't work with keyed classnames.
Leopold Toetsch reported it fixed in r12615.
error messages now with file name and line number <http://xrl.us/prks>
Stef committed a patch to add file names line numbers to error messages.
[perl #39050] Build failure in compilers/pge/pgc.pir <http://xrl.us/prkt>
In [perl #39050] <http://xrl.us/pufc>, Andy Dougherty reported that the
build process for the current snapshot dies on `compilers/pge/pgc.pir`. As
of May 30, the problem was still there.
[perl #39051] Test failure in t/pmc/objects_62.pasm (attributes)
<http://xrl.us/prku>
Andy Dougherty reported a failing test in `t/pmc/objects_62.pasm` in [perl
#39051] <http://xrl.us/pufd>.
[perl #39052] namespace-related failure in t/pmc/objects_74.pir
<http://xrl.us/prkv>
Andy Dougherty submitted ticket [perl #39052] <http://xrl.us/pufe> to
report a failing test in `t/pmc/objects_74.pir`.
[perl #39056] [BUG] vtable override doesn't work in sub-subclasses
<http://xrl.us/prkx>
Patrick R. Michaud wrote ticket [perl #39056] <http://xrl.us/pufg> to
report that vtable overrides don't work in a subclass of a subclass.
Leopold Toetsch noted it was fixed in r12797.
[perl #39063] [TODO] ResizableBooleanArray uses 64 bytes per bit of
information <http://xrl.us/prky>
Andy Dougherty started ticket [perl #39063] <http://xrl.us/pufh> to request
that ResizableBooleanArray use fewer bytes per element.
[perl #39066] [TODO] Get rid of compilers/imcc/jit.c <http://xrl.us/prkz>
Bernhard Schmalhofer noted in [perl #39066] <http://xrl.us/pufi> that
`compilers/imcc/jit.c` is outdated according to Leopold Toetsch's comment
in r11423.
Updates to perl6/pge compiler <http://xrl.us/prk2>
Patrick R. Michaud gave a status update on the Parrot-based compiler for
Perl 6. r12488 causes the compilation sequence to more closely follow the
expected plan of parsing and executing most expressions and simple
statements.
[perl #39072] [BUG] Unable to load_bytecode :multi after PGE.pbc
<http://xrl.us/prk3>
Patrick R. Michaud reported in [perl #39072] <http://xrl.us/pufj> that he
was unable to get Pheme to run on his system. Chromatic seconded the bug.
It was fixed in r12593.
[perl #39081] [BUG] (possible bug) multiple calls to __init for subclassed
objects <http://xrl.us/prk4>
In ticket [perl #39081] <http://xrl.us/pufk>, Patrick R. Michaud wrote that
subclasses which don't define an `__init` method will have multiple calls
to the base `__init` method. This was fixed in r12594.
Parrot on DragonFlyBSD <http://xrl.us/prk5>
Nick Kostirya included a patch for r12486 to fix compilation on
DragonFlyBSD.
[perl #37089] [TODO] PGE - Test Glob <http://xrl.us/prk6>
Will Coleda created ticket [perl #37089] <http://xrl.us/pufm> in September
to request tests for PGE's glob. Patrick R. Michaud closed the ticket as it
was addressed by `t/compilers/pge_globs.t`.
[perl #39085] [TODO] pmc - make pmc2c.pl extract function declarations
<http://xrl.us/prk7>
In ticket [perl #39085] <http://xrl.us/pufn> Andy Lester reported that each
.pmc file has redundant function headings.
[perl #39088] [TODO] Add conditional GCC attributes to functions
<http://xrl.us/prk9>
Andy Lester reported in [perl #39088] <http://xrl.us/pufo> that GCC has a
number of attributes that can be applied to functions. He offered to work
on this.
tags <http://xrl.us/prma>
Andy Lester reported that he improved Makefile's handling of ctags, so that
the tag refers to the .pmc file instead of the .c file.
[perl #39092] [TODO] Autogenerate functions in *.h files from source
<http://xrl.us/prmb>
In ticket [perl #39092] <http://xrl.us/pufp>, Andy Lester noted that there
is a lot of duplication between *.c and *.h files. He believes the .h files
should be autogenerated as much as possible.
APL - call for help <http://xrl.us/prmd>
Will Coleda asked if anyone had experience with APL and could create a test
suite to ensure that he is writing APL, rather than something APL-ish. Jack
Woehr forwarded on the request to people likely to know APL but not Perl 6.
[perl #39117] [TODO] Using v?snprintf/strlcpy/strlcat when useful
<http://xrl.us/prme>
Leopold Toetsch introduced ticket [perl #39117] <http://xrl.us/pufq>. Steve
Peters was looking in to it.
[perl #39132] [TODO] pirtidy - call for help <http://xrl.us/prmh>
Jerry Gay created a todo ticket on this subject, which originated in
pirtidy - call for help <http://xrl.us/prmg>, wherein Will Coleda
introduced the request. The resulting ticket was [perl #39132]
<http://xrl.us/pufr>.
Re: [perl #39135] Problem with concat on Match objects <http://xrl.us/prmk>
In [perl #39135] <http://xrl.us/pufs>, Patrick R. Michaud reported some
encounters with using concat with Match objects from PGE. Leopold Toetsch
suggested a workaround, but later fixed it.
Variadic Multi-Dispatch (or, M-D on certain invocants only)
<http://xrl.us/prmm>
Chromatic thought he had a problem with multi-dispatch on only the first
argument to a function, but when Leopold Toetsch looked at it he couldn't
see the error. Chromatic noted that he'd used 'array' as the type and
expected it to pick up ResizeablePMCArray and ResizeableStringArray too.
Once he fixed that the example worked.
HLL's, PMCs... <http://xrl.us/prmq>
Will Coleda inquired as to whether it is possible to load a language's PMCs
and create the .PMCtype constants without using the .HLL pragma. Patrick R.
Michaud suggested `:immediate`.
inconsistent load* opcodes <http://xrl.us/prmr>
Will Coleda gave an example of inconsistent load opcodes and proposed a
couple of alternatives.
[perl #39142] [TODO] pmc2c.pl doesn't allow mixed case groups/pmc filenames.
<http://xrl.us/prmv>
Will Coleda created ticket [perl #39142] <http://xrl.us/puft> to note that
using a PMC in a file called `APLVector.pmc` with a group of `APL_group`
caused build failures on case-sensitive platforms. Nicholas Clark asked at
what level case agnosticism should be implemented, and Will expanded on the
original thread.
[ARCH] Classes moving into namespaces; parrot reserved namespace
<http://xrl.us/prmw>
Chip Salzenberg outlined the changes he is making to address flaws in
Parrot class design. Will Coleda expressed concern that the modifications
would expose internal Parrot to HLL programmers. Chip felt that it would be
impossible to create a completely invisible Parrot, and proposed another
means of dealing with the namespace issue. Jonathan Worthington had a
couple of questions, which Chip answered. Leopold Toetsch also had some
input.
[PMC] init_pmc_props() DEPRECATED; init_pmc() GENERALIZED; beware
set_pointer() <http://xrl.us/prmx>
Chip Salzenberg noted that the documentation of the `init_pmc()` vtable
method was inconsistent. He announced a change in the documentation and
also noted a few other issues he planned to look in to.
Re: lvalues and "is rw" parameter passing <http://xrl.us/prmy>
Patrick R. Michaud responded to an older thread on the syntax of some Perl
6 code in PIR. Chip Salzenberg commented that it might be necessary to wait
for further Perl 6 details before writing sample code. He speculated on the
plan for scalar containers, which Audrey Tang confirmed was the intended
implementation.
[perl #39161] [BUG] :multi fails when .HLL is in effect <http://xrl.us/prm2>
Patrick R . Michaud created ticket [perl #39161] <http://xrl.us/pufu>
because subroutines with `:multi` do not work properly inside files with
.HLL declarations.
:immediate behavior <http://xrl.us/prm3>
Klaas-Jan Stol wrote to request some clarification on the `:immediate`
pragma in practice. Leopold Toetsch agreed that it currently works as
Klaas-Jan suspected. Patrick R. Michaud added his thoughts on side effects.
[perl #39164] [PATCH] Cygwin: build with spaces in build_dir
<http://xrl.us/prm4>
Greg Bacon offered a patch in [perl #39164] <http://xrl.us/pufv> to allow
Parrot to build on Cygwin when the build_dir contains spaces. Matt
Diephouse noted that it also worked on OS X, and applied the patch in
r12755.
Pheme, Custom Classes, and Multi-Dispatch <http://xrl.us/prm6>
Chromatic included a patch for a custom Cons class to Pheme for
Lisp/Scheme, but expressed his uncertainty that he had addressed the issue
properly.
[perl #39173] Multi-Dispatch Incompatible with :flat Params
<http://xrl.us/prm7>
Chromatic submitted ticket [perl #39173] <http://xrl.us/pufw>, noting that
the multi-dispatch signature checking code in `src/mmd.c` does not know
anything about `:flat` calls. Leopold Toetsch agreed that was the case, and
quoted a snippet from S06. There was some continued discussion on what
Chromatic wanted, and what the synopses stated on the subject. Chip
Salzenberg made a suggestion, which was implemented in r12753.
languages/ Cleanup <http://xrl.us/prm9>
Matt Diephouse proposed removing some languages from the Parrot source
because the implementations were quite out of date or unused. There was no
disagreement, and this was done in r12807. There was, however, a discussion
on the difficulty of finding deleted files in an SVN repository.
[svn:parrot-pdd] r12774 - trunk/docs/pdds/clip <http://xrl.us/prne>
Jonathan Worthington wrote to comment on the implementation of finally
handlers in Chip Salzenberg's in r12774.
[perl #39196] [TODO] tests - need to test addmethod <http://xrl.us/prnf>
Will Coleda noted in ticket [perl #39196] <http://xrl.us/pufx> that the
addmethod opcode requires tests.
Instructions to build parrot using mingw <http://xrl.us/prnj>
Joshua Gatcomb was trying to build Parrot after 1.5 years without updating.
He was not sure how to best install it on his Windows system with limited
rights, and Jurosz Michal offered advice.
PBC meta info <http://xrl.us/prnk>
Leopold Toetsch posted with a proposal on how to handle PBC meta
information based upon his thoughts after reading PDD23.
RFC: Patch for mingw-msys <http://xrl.us/prnm>
Joshua Gatcomb noted that having mysys in his path led to unexpected
problems with mingw even when he wasn't intentionally trying to use mysys.
Andy Dougherty didn't understand the patch; Joshua explained it just
offered a warning.
[perl #39217] [TODO] legal - eliminate "All Rights Reserved."
<http://xrl.us/pufy>
Allison Randal created a ticket, [perl #39217] <http://xrl.us/pufz>, to
remove the phrase "All Rights Reserved" from copyright notices. Will Coleda
listed a couple of cases and asked how they would be handled. This led to a
discussion of the history of the phrase, the history of The Perl
Foundation's name, and the legal status of copyright symbols. r12825
addressed Allison's request.
Software transactional memory / atomic_ops copyright <http://xrl.us/prno>
Charles Reiss is working on a project to implement STM in Parrot. He had a
copyright question, which Allison Randal answered.
Coroutine reset functionality? <http://xrl.us/prns>
Klaas-Jan Stol proposed functionality to reset a coroutine. Elizabeth
Mattijsen and Leopold Toetsch felt it would be useful.
Later, in thread coroutine segfaults <http://xrl.us/prny>, Klaas-Jan Stol
wrote that if a coroutine is called more times than it `.yield()`s, there
is a segmentation fault. Leopold Toetsch replied that this was indeed
closely linked to `.reset()`.
[perl #39249] Can't use literal unicode string as a hash key.
<http://xrl.us/prnz>
In [perl #39249] <http://xrl.us/puf2>, Will Coleda supplied some code
involving unicode hash keys which failed to compile.
Stepping Away. <http://xrl.us/prn2>
Andy Dougherty informed the parrot porters that he will be stepping away
from the Parrot project. He also submitted all his pending patches to RT.
Leopold Toetsch thanked him for his contributions so far.
Thank you, Andy, and good bye!
Andy's patches and other tickets:
1. [perl #39053] [PATCH] Update PLATFORMS for Solaris (May 2006)
<http://xrl.us/prkw>
2. [perl #39063] [TODO] ResizableBooleanArray uses 64 bytes per bit of
information <http://xrl.us/prky>
3. [perl #39066] [TODO] Get rid of compilers/imcc/jit.c
<http://xrl.us/prkz>
4. [perl #39188] imcc dumps core when called with -o file.pasm.
<http://xrl.us/prnc>
5. [perl #39197] lib/Parrot/Test.pm ignores core dumps failures!
<http://xrl.us/prng>
6. [perl #39244] [PATCH] Initialize I and N registers.
<http://xrl.us/prnv>
7. [perl #39245] [PATCH] Update Platforms -- Late May 2006
<http://xrl.us/prnw>
[perl #39254] Unicode sub names don't work with :multi <http://xrl.us/prn4>
Will Coleda reported that unicode subroutine names don't work with :multi,
in [perl #39254] <http://xrl.us/puf3>. Leopold Toetsch committed a fix in
r12867.
Compiler
error building pugs: "Could not find module `Data.ByteString'"
<http://xrl.us/pgig>
Dave Whipp reported a build error, but then said that updating his working
directory resolved this issue.
problem building pugs <http://xrl.us/prn5>
Rlp reported a build failure which Audrey Tang promptly fixed.
[perl #39171] Crash on Win32 for 6**(9999999) <http://xrl.us/prn6>
Bjoern Hoehrmann reported a Pugs crash in [perl #39171]
<http://xrl.us/puf4>.
Newbe: How do I configure @*INC ? <http://xrl.us/prn7>
John M. Dlugosz asked how to configure the [EMAIL PROTECTED] array in his
Windows
build of Pugs. Jonathan Scott Duff suggesting using the `PERL6LIB`
environment variable.
Acknowlegements
New features in Yuval Kogman's Mail::Summary::Tools further improved the
summary-writing process. Yuval also contributed some of the summaries this
week.
If you appreciate Perl, consider contributing to the Perl Foundation
<http://donate.perlfoundation.org> to help support the development of Perl.
Thank you to everyone who has pointed out mistakes and offered suggestions
for improving this series. Comments on this summary can be sent to Ann
Barcomb, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>.
See Also
* Perl Foundation activities <http://blog.perlfoundation.org>
* Perl 6 Development <http://dev.perl.org/perl6>
* Planet Perl Six <http://planetsix.perl.org/perl6>
