diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | pod/perldelta.pod | 111 |
1 files changed, 86 insertions, 25 deletions
diff --git a/pod/perldelta.pod b/pod/perldelta.pod index 2ef1f418a6..b5f126c05a 100644 --- a/pod/perldelta.pod +++ b/pod/perldelta.pod @@ -144,6 +144,13 @@ to escape the laboratory has been decommissioned. =item * +The builtin dump() function has probably outlived most of its +usefulness. The core-dumping functionality will remain in future +available as an explicit call to C<CORE::dump()>, but in future +releases the behaviour of an unqualified C<dump()> call may change. + +=item * + The very dusty examples in the eg/ directory have been removed. Suggestions for new shiny examples welcome but the main issue is that the examples need to be documented, tested and (most importantly) @@ -339,7 +346,7 @@ to Unicode 3.1.1. For more information, see http://www.unicode.org/. For developers interested in enhancing Perl's Unicode capabilities: almost all the UCD files are included with the Perl distribution in -the lib/unicore subdirectory. The most notable omission, for space +the F<lib/unicore subdirectory>. The most notable omission, for space considerations, is the Unihan database. =item * @@ -368,7 +375,7 @@ This change leads to often slightly faster and always less lossy arithmetics. (Previously Perl always preferred floating point numbers in its math.) -=head2 Miscellaneous Enhancements +=head2 Miscellaneous Changes =over 4 @@ -384,6 +391,23 @@ in multiple arguments.) =item * +The builtin dump() now gives an optional warning +C<Ambiguous call resolved as CORE::dump(), qualify as such or use &> +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 +removed/changed in future releases.) + +=item * + +chomp() and chop() have been demoted back to I<not> being overrideable +because they cannot really be overridden-- the problem is that their +prototype cannot be expressed and therefore one really cannot write +replacements to override these builtins. + +=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 PL_exit_flags & PERL_EXIT_DESTRUCT_END. This enables the new @@ -401,6 +425,11 @@ However, the lvalue subroutine feature still remains experimental. =item * +A lost warning "Can't declare ... dereference in my" has been +restored (Perl had it earlier but it became lost in later releases.) + +=item * + A new special regular expression variable has been introduced: C<$^N>, which contains the most-recently closed group (submatch). @@ -448,6 +477,19 @@ prototype(\[$@%&]) is now available to implicitly create references =item * +A new command-line option, C<-t> is available. It is the +little brother of C<-T>: instead of dieing on taint violations, +lexical warnings are given. B<This is only meant as a temporary +debugging aid while securing the code of old legacy applications. +This is not a substitute for -T.> + +=item * + +If tr/// is just counting characters, it doesn't attempt to +modify its target. + +=item * + untie() will now call an UNTIE() hook if it exists. See L<perltie> for details. @@ -955,6 +997,11 @@ with 'no lib' now works. =item * +ExtUtils::MakeMaker now uses File::Spec internally, which hopefully +leads into better portability. + +=item * + Math::BigFloat and Math::BigInt have undergone a full rewrite. They are now magnitudes faster, and they support various bignum libraries such as GMP and PARI as their backends. @@ -965,9 +1012,10 @@ Math::Complex handles inf, NaN etc., better. =item * -Net::Ping has been enhanced. There is now "external" protocol which -uses Net::Ping::External module which runs external ping(1) and parses -the output. A version of Net::Ping::External is available in CPAN. +Net::Ping has been muchly enhanced. Multihoming is now supported. +There is now "external" protocol which uses Net::Ping::External module +which runs external ping(1) and parses the output. A version of +Net::Ping::External is available in CPAN. =item * @@ -1006,7 +1054,7 @@ The vars pragma now supports declaring fully qualified variables. =item * -The utf8:: name space (as in the pragma) provides various +The C<utf8::> name space (as in the pragma) provides various Perl-callable functions to provide low level access to Perl's internal Unicode representation. At the moment only length() has been implemented. @@ -1165,8 +1213,9 @@ with perltoot in filesystems restricted to "8.3" names) =item * -perluniintro is an introduction to using Unicode in Perl -(perlunicode is more of a reference) +perluniintro is an introduction to using Unicode in Perl. +(perlunicode is more of a detailed reference and background +information) =item * @@ -1511,6 +1560,10 @@ AtheOS (http://www.atheos.cx/) is a new platform. =item * +BeOS has been reclaimed. + +=item * + DG/UX platform now supports the 5.005-style threads. See L<perldgux>. =item * @@ -1548,6 +1601,11 @@ NCR MP-RAS is now supported. =item * +All the NetBSD specific patches (except for the installation +specific ones) have been merged back to the main distribution. + +=item * + NetWare from Novell is now supported. See L<perlnetware>. =item * @@ -1560,6 +1618,18 @@ NEC SUPER-UX is now supported. =item * +All the OpenBSD specific patches (except for the installation +specific ones) have been merged back to the main distribution. + +=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. + +=item * + Amdahl UTS UNIX mainframe platform is now supported. =item * @@ -1873,7 +1943,14 @@ The character tables have been updated to Unicode 3.1.1. =item * Comparing with utf8 data does not magically upgrade non-utf8 data -into utf8. +into utf8. (This was a problem for example if you were mixing data +from I/O and Unicode data: your output might have got magically encoded +as UTF-8.) + +=item * + +Generating illegal Unicode code points like U+FFFE, or the UTF-16 +surrogates, now also generates an optional warning. =item * @@ -2576,27 +2653,11 @@ libraries). =head2 Seen In Perl 5.7 But Gone Now -Some modules were seen in the Perl 5.7 development releases -but are not present in 5.8.0. - -=over 4 - -=item * - -C<Attribute::Handlers> was removed because the implementation of C<my> -variable attributes changed so much that the Attribute::Handlers will -require a major rewrite. (This means that you can't use -Attribute::Handler 0.76 with Perl 5.8.0.) - -=item * - C<Time::Piece> (previously known as C<Time::Object>) was removed because it was felt that it didn't have enough value in it to be a core module. It is still a useful module, though, and is available from the CPAN. -=back - =head1 Reporting Bugs If you find what you think is a bug, you might check the articles |