# Announce: Rakudo Perl 6 compiler, Development Release #76 ("Bajor")On behalf of the Rakudo development team, I'm happy to announce the May 2014 release of Rakudo Perl 6 #76 "Bajor". Rakudo is an implementation of Perl 6 on the Parrot Virtual Machine, the Java Virtual Machine and the Moar Virtual Machine[^1]. The tarball for this release is available from <http://rakudo.org/downloads/rakudo/>. Please note: This announcement is not for the Rakudo Star distribution[^2] --- it's announcing a new release of the compiler only. For the latest Rakudo Star release, see <http://rakudo.org/downloads/star/>. The Rakudo Perl compiler follows a monthly release cycle, with each release named after a Perl Mongers group. I am sure there is a Perl Monger meeting in the Rakantha Province at the time of this writing. Some of the changes in this release are outlined below: + added or updated many Supply methods: act, batch, categorize, Channel, classify, delay, elems, flat, grab, last, live, max, min, minmax, merge, migrate, Promise, reduce, reverse, rotor, sort, squish, stable, start, uniq, wait, zip + added IO::Notification.watch_path / IO::Path::watch which return a Supply of file system changes + added IO::Socket::Async.connect, .send, .chars_supply + added first-index, last-index, grep-index subs/methods + deprecate $*OS, $*OSVER, $*VM<name>, $*VM<config>, $*PERL<name> $*PERL<compiler>... + added $*KERNEL, $*DISTRO, $*VM, $*PERL as full blown objects + .delta (by recent spec change) in Date/DateTime now instead spelled .later and .earlier + TimeUnit enum removed; string named and positional arguments used instead + "use v5" is no longer a noop, but actually tries to load the "v5" module (soon available as part of Rakudo*) + implemented labeled loops and throwing of labels as payload + added various optimizations, like optimizing out %_ when unused These are only some of the changes in this release. For a more detailed list, see "docs/ChangeLog". The development team thanks all of our contributors and sponsors for making Rakudo Perl possible, as well as those people who worked on Parrot, the Perl 6 test suite, MoarVM and the specification. The following people contributed to this release: Elizabeth Mattijsen, Jonathan Worthington, Tobias Leich, Alexander Moquin, Moritz Lenz, Donald Hunter, Carl Masak, Timo Paulssen, lue, Tim Smith, Geoffrey Broadwell, Larry Wall, Filip Sergot, David Warring, Andrew Egeler, Jonathan Scott Duff, Solomon Foster If you would like to contribute, see <http://rakudo.org/how-to-help>, ask on the <perl6-compi...@perl.org> mailing list, or ask on IRC \#perl6 on freenode. The next release of Rakudo (#77), is scheduled for June 19, 2014. A list of the other planned release dates and code names for future releases is available in the "docs/release_guide.pod" file. A Rakudo development release typically occurs a few days (often two) after the third Tuesday of each month. On behalf of the development team, I encourage you to enjoy the new release, try awesome stuff, have the appropriate amount of fun, and get back to us with feedback. [^1]: See <http://moarvm.org/> [^2]: What's the difference between the Rakudo compiler and the Rakudo Star distribution? The Rakudo compiler is a compiler for the Perl 6 language. Nothing else. The Rakudo Star distribution is the Rakudo compiler plus a selection of useful Perl 6 modules, a module installer, the most recent incarnation of the "Using Perl 6" book, and other software that can be used with the Rakudo compiler to enhance its utility. Rakudo Star is meant for early adopters who wish to explore what's possible with Rakudo Perl 6 and provide feedback on what works, what doesn't, and what else they would like to see included in the distribution.
