This week on the Perl 6 mailing lists
"'Course, if someone goes ahead and adds the Y combinator, one must
naturally begin to wonder what the YY combinator would be... :-) "
-- Larry Wall
"Obviously it generates a function so anonymous that it can't even
refer to itself. I call it the depressed existentialist solipsist
operator."
-- chromatic, in 'Y not <http://xrl.us/u23z>'
Language
Y not <http://xrl.us/u23z>
Larry Wall announced the demise of ` ?? `, which was not much lamented.
Thomas Wittek suggested calling it `zip` and there was some discussion
of whether it is better to use terms like `minmax` and `zip`, or to
use symbols like `MM` and `ZZ`. Several jokes were made along the way.
[svn:perl6-synopsis] r13699 - doc/trunk/design/syn <http://xrl.us/u232>
A commit by Larry Wall replaced ?? is replaced by Z. There was also a
change with the `XX` operator, which became `X`.
Relief for rw/ro <http://xrl.us/u233>
Steve Lukas remarked that Larry Wall had asked for ideas about good
names for various states of write access. He offered a proposal which
involves indicating that the writeability can be described as
variable, constant, or final. Dr. Ruud added a brief comment about the
length of the term `variable`, which he didn't find to be too long.
[svn:perl6-synopsis] r13703 - doc/trunk/design/syn <http://xrl.us/u238>
A commit from Larry Wall clarified that a named argument may name
either a label or a variable.
Blair Sutton asked if the synopsis repository is publicly available,
and if it is part of the Parrot or Pugs repository. The URL of the
repository <http://xrl.us/tz5p> was posted.
Parrot Porters
[perl #29994] [BUG] "loadlib $P0, varname" not working correctly
<http://xrl.us/u239>
Some time ago, in ticket [perl #29994] <http://xrl.us/u6ue>, Jens
Rieks reported an error in `imcc/parser_util.c`. Klaas-Jan Stol
updated the ticket and noted that the loadlib op works on windows.
However, another error was found: when loading a non-existent library,
no exception is raised.
[perl #41235] [PATCH] Add get_name() Method to Namespaces
<http://xrl.us/u6hq>
Earlier, chromatic created a patch for `get_name`, which Jerry Gay
forwarded to RT to create ticket [perl #41235] <http://xrl.us/t9n7>.
Jerry wanted to apply the patch before 0.4.8, but chromatic said that
he had been waiting because Allison Randal wanted a deprecation cycle
for the rename of `name()` to `get_name()`. Allison replied that she
had made a note that it was deprecated (r17030) and said that the
patch could be applied after the release.
[perl #41237] [TODO] PMC Class name IDs will require a dot in front
<http://xrl.us/ucnv>
Klaas-Jan Stol reminded people that an issue had not been decided.
Earlier, Jerry Gay created ticket [perl #41237] <http://xrl.us/t9n9>
to address an item in DEPRECATED.pod about PMC Class name IDs. He felt
that either it should use one syntax or the other, but not both.
Allison Randal preferred eliminating the dot in classname IDs. Matt
Diephouse, on the other hand, liked the dot. Klaas-Jan Stol added that
the dot indicates that it is PIR not pure PASM.
Allison thought that if Matt used it to disambiguate between types and
local variables, it was a matter of sigils. She asked why put sigils
on types instead of putting them in variables, and if a dot was the
ideal sigil for types.
[perl #41529] [BUG]: t/perl/Parrot_Distribution.t test failure
<http://xrl.us/u24c>
In ticket [perl #41529] <http://xrl.us/u6uf>, James Keenan reported
that there was a new failure in `Parrot_Distribution.t`. Jerry Gay
explained that the test exposes a bug in Parrot::Distribution, which
classifies files as Perl even when they are not. He noted that failing
tests had been used as a reminder of things which needed to be fixed,
and this was still used to some extent, although there was a movement
towards RT.
The problem was resolved in r17069.
There was some discussion about the difficulty of identifying the
problem. Jerry Gay mentioned that he was working on refactoring
Parrot::Distribution.
in PIR, a BigInt is turning into a string against my will -- what am I
doing wrong? <http://xrl.us/u24d>
Eric Hanchrow reported a problem in r16999. Patrick R. Michaud offered
some suggestions for correcting the code in question.
[PATCH] #39615: [TODO] get_outer op not defined in PDDs
<http://xrl.us/u24e>
Klaas-Jan Stol submitted a patch which adds the description of
`get_outer()` to PDD20.
[PATCH] updates for docs/faq.pod <http://xrl.us/u24f>
Klaas-Jan Stol made some updates to `faq.pod` which related to ticket
[perl #41312] <http://xrl.us/u2y6>.
:anon flag bug? <http://xrl.us/u24g>
Klaas-Jan Stol had a question relating to a fix for [perl #39196]
<http://xrl.us/u6ug>. An anonymous subroutine was unexpectedly being
found, and he wondered if that was a bug.
[PATCH] retry pir/pasm updates for lang/pir <http://xrl.us/u24h>
Klaas-Jan Stol submitted a patch to replace his earlier one.
[PATCH] lang/PIR updates <http://xrl.us/u24i>
A patch by Klaas-Jan Stol made some corrections to `languages/PIR`.
[perl #41538] readline kills parrot on files missing a final newline
<http://xrl.us/u24j>
In ticket [perl #41538] <http://xrl.us/u6uh>, Joshua Isom described a
problem which could be replicated by creating a small file without a
newline at the end. chromatic applied it in r17103.
Q on: #37542: [TODO] core - document behavior of multiple :load
subpragmas in same compilation unit <http://xrl.us/u24n>
Klaas-Jan Stol responded to ticket [perl #37542] <http://xrl.us/u6ui>
which he claimed stated that the behavior of multiple subroutines
marked with the `:load` subpragma in the same compilation unit is
undefined. However, Klaas-Jan pointed out that it is defined and
wondered if the ticket could be closed.
Patrick R. Michaud agreed with closing the ticket. Will Coleda
explained how Klaas-Jan could update the ticket directly.
Preening the parrot for show <http://xrl.us/u24p>
Nicholas Clark suggested that release versions of Parrot should have
debugging flags off so that it will benchmark nicely. This came from a
public discussion of the speed of the Ruby implementation.
Tewk noted that the numbers generated by Cardinal are probably
incorrect because the current implementation is very minimal.
Joshua Isom wondered if it was best for the default core to be the
slow core. Although this makes testing easier, it gives misleading
benchmarks.
[perl #40544] [NEW] Test for DOS line endings in Parrot text files
<http://xrl.us/u24q>
Earlier, in ticket [perl #40544] <http://xrl.us/so8x>, Paul Cochrane
submitted a test which checks for DOS line endings in the Parrot
distribution.
Will Coleda recently noted that some of the problems are related to
[perl #41485] <http://xrl.us/u3sb> and that when he sets the
properties in his working copy, the tests succeed. Paul provided an
update: he will be do a few commits which update the svn eol property.
Because a large number of files will be affected, the update will done
in a small time slot.
As of r17102, it was fixed.
[perl #41548] [Tcl] - internals tests failings <http://xrl.us/u24r>
Will Coleda reported a failing test in [perl #41548]
<http://xrl.us/u6uj>.
[perl #41549] [PATCH] fixes :vtable pragma for .pbc files
<http://xrl.us/u24s>
In ticket [perl #41549] <http://xrl.us/u6uk>, Alek Storm submitted a
patch in response to [perl #40626] <http://xrl.us/s5rj> and [perl
#41364] <http://xrl.us/u3h4>. Jonathan Worthington planned to commit
it.
Deprecated ops: emit warning? <http://xrl.us/u24u>
Klaas-Jan Stol noted that there are some operations which have been
deprecated but which have not been listed in `DEPRECATED.pod`. He
suggested adding a check which will emit a warning if an operator is
deprecated.
[PATCH] languages/lua lua.pg Grammar fixes <http://xrl.us/u24v>
Klaas-Jan Stol submitted a patch for the Lua grammar file.
Cross-compiling Parrot <http://xrl.us/u24w>
Aldo Calpini resurrected comments from Dan Sugalski in 2004 which
dealt with cross-compiling. In order to submit patches which do not
break the existing code, he asked some questions about how people are
using cross-compilation at the moment.
Jerry Gay wanted to see some development in this field, and suggested
an approach based upon test-driven development for configuration
system changes. Joshua Isom remarked that Perl 5's configure is
somewhat limited, and Perl 5 may not always be available. While Aldo
agreed that Perl 5's configure is a bad way to go, he didn't see
anything wrong with using Perl 5 as the tool to build. Allison Randal
also indicated that reliance on Perl 5's configure would be a problem.
She proposed that Aldo start with a proposal and patches.
chromatic remarked that it would be nice to be able to put data files
somewhere and have configure read those instead of probing the system.
[perl #41557] [BUG] addparent established hierarchies don't work with
.Super <http://xrl.us/u24y>
Sam Vilain reported problems with inheritance which can result in the
exception 'object has no parent'. Tests were added in r17031 to
demonstrate the issue. This problem was explained in ticket [perl
#41557] <http://xrl.us/u6um>.
[perl #41558] [PATCH] Add ops summary doc generator <http://xrl.us/u24z>
In ticket [perl #41558] <http://xrl.us/u6un>, Shawn M Moore submitted
a patch which adds a new utility script to create a summary of all the
operators.
[perl #39196] [TODO] tests - need to test addmethod <http://xrl.us/u242>
In ticket [perl #39196] <http://xrl.us/u6ug>, Klaas-Jan Stol submitted
a patch which adds a test for `addmethod`.
[perl #41569] [BUG] t/distro/file_metadata.t fails on win32
<http://xrl.us/u244>
In ticket [perl #41569] <http://xrl.us/u6uo>, Jerry Gay indicated a
problem with a test which fails on Win32.
Preliminary notes for 0.4.9 release <http://xrl.us/u245>
In preparation for the 0.4.9 release, Patrick R. Michaud asked some
questions of people who have previously worked on release management.
Allison Randal, chromatic and Nuno Carvalho replied.
[perl #41576] [BUG] t/pmc/pmethod_test.t fails on x86_64
<http://xrl.us/u246>
In ticket [perl #41576] <http://xrl.us/u6up>, Patrick R . Michaud
reported a failure with `t/pmc/pmethod_test.t`.
[perl #38983] [PDD] review PDD01_overview.pod <http://xrl.us/u248>
Patrick R. Michaud reported in ticket [perl #38983]
<http://xrl.us/u6uq> that he had changed the roadmap to refer to PDD01
instead of the 'PLATFORMS' file which doesn't exist. However, PDD01 is
still in draft status, so Patrick asked if it can be approved.
[perl #41577] docs/ROADMAP.pod refers to python bytecode translator,
pie-thon test suite <http://xrl.us/u25a>
Patrick R . Michaud reported in ticket [perl #41577]
<http://xrl.us/u6ur> that there are some points in the roadmap which
may no longer be relevant. Allison Randal fixed them in r17210.
[perl #41579] [BUG] t/pmc/ref.t, t/pmc/threads.t file with -C runcore
<http://xrl.us/u25b>
In ticket [perl #41579] <http://xrl.us/u6us>, Patrick R . Michaud
reported two failing tests. chromatic confirmed that this was not
restricted to x86_64.
[perl #41583] Tail calls from within vtable methods broken
<http://xrl.us/u25e>
Bram Geron reported that tail calls within v-table methods are broken.
Ticket [perl #41583] <http://xrl.us/u6ut> tracks this bug.
[perl #41584] [TODO] Update RELEASE_INSTRUCTIONS with details for
updating the website <http://xrl.us/u25f>
In ticket [perl #41584] <http://xrl.us/u6uu>, Patrick R . Michaud
noted that the release instructions should include a reminder to
update the website.
[PATCH] PDD16 NCI update with simple example <http://xrl.us/u25g>
Klaas-Jan Stol submitted a patch which contains a simple example which
can be added to PDD16. chromatic applied it in r17164.
[perl #41455] [NEW] and [PATCH]: tools/build/ops2pm.pl refactored
<http://xrl.us/u6hr>
Earlier, James Keenan noted that he had some new patches for tests.
They were added in r17061. The patches can be seen in [perl #41455]
<http://xrl.us/u6uv>.
[perl #41597] [PATCH] replacing explicit access to $^O in Configure
<http://xrl.us/u6ht>
Aldo Calpini submitted a patch to ticket [perl #41597]
<http://xrl.us/u6uw>. This patch adds an 'osname' key to Parrot's
configuration data, which is used in the configure process.
Compiler
Parrot 0.4.9 released! <http://xrl.us/u25h>
Patrick R. Michaud announced the release of Parrot 0.4.9, "Socorro".
cvs-parrot
[svn:parrot] r17107 - trunk/src/stm <http://xrl.us/u6ux>
chromatic objected to a patch which removed access to a null pointer
in `stm/backend.c`. He thought that the best solution would be to have
the PMC `init()` throw an exception.
Allison Randal thought that it made sense to return with no action.
`reply_extracted` already has the same check, and `mark_extracted`
should have the check added. Jerry Gay added it in r17159.
Acknowledgements
This summary was prepared using Mail::Summary::Tools
<http://xrl.us/qvno>, available on CPAN.
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]>.
Distribution
This summary can be found in the following places:
* use.perl.org <http://use.perl.org/>
* The Pugs blog <http://pugs.blogs.com/>
* The perl6-announce mailing list <http://xrl.us/qycj>
* ONLamp <http://www.oreillynet.com/onlamp/blog/>
See Also
* Perl Foundation activities <http://blog.perlfoundation.org>
* Perl 6 Development <http://dev.perl.org/perl6>
* Planet Perl Six <http://planetsix.perlfoundation.org/>
