diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'pod')
| -rw-r--r-- | pod/perldelta.pod | 22 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | pod/perlhist.pod | 1 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | pod/perltodo.pod | 17 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | pod/perlvar.pod | 48 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | pod/pod2man.PL | 4 |
5 files changed, 84 insertions, 8 deletions
diff --git a/pod/perldelta.pod b/pod/perldelta.pod index d841d28b87..329b1d0a08 100644 --- a/pod/perldelta.pod +++ b/pod/perldelta.pod @@ -161,6 +161,28 @@ strings. See L<perlfunc/"pack">. The new format type modifer '_' is useful for packing and unpacking native shorts, ints, and longs. See L<perlfunc/"pack">. +=head2 $^X variables may now have names longer than one character + +Formerly, $^X was synonymous with ${"\cX"}, but $^XY was a syntax +error. Now variable names that begin with a control character may be +arbitrarily long. However, for compatibility reasons, these variables +I<must> be written with explicit braces, as C<${^XY}> for example. +C<${^XYZ}> is synonymous with ${"\cXYZ"}. Variable names with more +than one control character, such as C<${^XY^Z}>, are illegal. + +The old syntax has not changed. As before, the `^X' may either be a +literal control-X character or the two character sequence `caret' plus +`X'. When the braces are omitted, the variable name stops after the +control character. Thus C<"$^XYZ"> continues to be synonymous with +C<$^X . "YZ"> as before. + +As before, lexical variables may not have names beginning with control +characters. As before, variables whose names begin with a control +character are always forced to be in package `main'. These variables +are all reserved for future extensions, except the ones that begin +with C<^_>, which may be used by user programs and will not acquire a +special meaning in any future version of Perl. + =head1 Significant bug fixes =head2 E<lt>HANDLEE<gt> on empty files diff --git a/pod/perlhist.pod b/pod/perlhist.pod index 40aa83c1f2..b5bda55177 100644 --- a/pod/perlhist.pod +++ b/pod/perlhist.pod @@ -316,6 +316,7 @@ the strings?). 5.005_53 1998-Oct-31 5.005_54 1998-Nov-30 5.005_55 1999-Feb-16 + 5.005_56 1999-Mar-01 =head2 SELECTED RELEASE SIZES diff --git a/pod/perltodo.pod b/pod/perltodo.pod index fe339dec79..4b5a5063e3 100644 --- a/pod/perltodo.pod +++ b/pod/perltodo.pod @@ -117,11 +117,6 @@ Verify complete 64 bit support so that the value of sysseek, or C<-s>, or stat(), or tell can fit into a perl number without losing precision. Work with the perl-64bit mailing list on perl.org. -=head2 Figure a way out of $^(capital letter) - -Figure out a clean way to extend $^(capital letter) beyond -the 26 alphabets. (${^WORD} maybe?) - =head2 Prototypes =over 4 @@ -237,6 +232,7 @@ will be difficult. CPP-space: restrict CPP symbols exported from headers header-space: move into CORE/perl/ API-space: begin list of things that constitute public api + env-space: Configure should use PERL_CONFIG instead of CONFIG etc. =head2 MULTIPLICITY @@ -378,7 +374,9 @@ Make C<perldoc> tell users what they need to add to their .login or =head2 Install ALL Documentation Make the standard documentation kit include the VMS, OS/2, Win32, -Threads, etc information. +Threads, etc information. installperl and pod/Makefile should know +enough to copy README.foo to perlfoo.pod before building everything, +when appropriate. =head2 Outstanding issues to be documented @@ -839,6 +837,13 @@ Can we install modules as bytecode? =head1 Recently Finished Tasks +=head2 Figure a way out of $^(capital letter) + +Figure out a clean way to extend $^(capital letter) beyond +the 26 alphabets. (${^WORD} maybe?) + +Mark-Jason Dominus sent a patch which went into 5.005_56. + =head2 Filenames Make filenames in the distribution and in the standard module set diff --git a/pod/perlvar.pod b/pod/perlvar.pod index 2dafc1ca1a..5c851d9c15 100644 --- a/pod/perlvar.pod +++ b/pod/perlvar.pod @@ -1005,3 +1005,51 @@ pipe C<close>, overwriting the old value. For more details, see the individual descriptions at L<$@>, L<$!>, L<$^E>, and L<$?>. + + +=head2 Technical Note on the Syntax of Variable Names + +Variable names in Perl can have several formats. Usually, they must +begin with a letter or underscore, in which case they can be +arbitrarily long (up to an internal limit of 256 characters) and may +contain letters, digits, underscores, or the special sequence C<::>. +In this case the part before the last C<::> is taken to be a I<package +qualifier>; see L<perlmod>. + +Perl variable names may also be a sequence of digits or a single +punctuation or control character. These names are all reserved for +special uses by Perl; for example, the all-digits names are used to +hold backreferences after a regulare expression match. Perl has a +special syntax for the single-control-character names: It understands +C<^X> (caret C<X>) to mean the control-C<X> character. For example, +the notation C<$^W> (dollar-sign caret C<W>) is the scalar variable +whose name is the single character control-C<W>. This is better than +typing a literal control-C<W> into your program. + +Finally, new in Perl 5.006, Perl variable names may be alphanumeric +strings that begin with control characters. These variables must be +written in the form C<${^Foo}>; the braces are not optional. +C<${^Foo}> denotes the scalar variable whose name is a control-C<F> +followed by two C<o>'s. These variables are reserved for future +special uses by Perl, except for the ones that begin with C<^_> +(control-underscore). No control-character name that begins with +C<^_> will acquire a special meaning in any future version of Perl; +such names may therefore be used safely in programs. C<^_> itself, +however, I<is> reserved. + +All Perl variables that begin with digits, control characters, or +punctuation characters are exempt from the effects of the C<package> +declaration and are always forced to be in package C<main>. A few +other names are also exempt: + + ENV STDIN + INC STDOUT + ARGV STDERR + ARGVOUT + SIG + +In particular, the new special C<${^_XYZ}> variables are always taken +to be in package C<main> regardless of any C<package> declarations +presently in scope. + + diff --git a/pod/pod2man.PL b/pod/pod2man.PL index 3c55d6e29c..11bb74bd67 100644 --- a/pod/pod2man.PL +++ b/pod/pod2man.PL @@ -678,8 +678,8 @@ $indent = 0; $begun = ""; -# Unrolling [^A-Z>]|[A-Z](?!<) gives: // MRE pp 165. -my $nonest = '(?:[^A-Z>]*(?:[A-Z](?!<)[^A-Z>]*)*)'; +# Unrolling [^-=A-Z>]|[A-Z](?!<)|[-=][\x00-\xFF] gives: // MRE pp 165. +my $nonest = '(?:[^-=A-Z>]*(?:(?:[-=][\x00-\xFF]|[A-Z](?!<))[^-=A-Z>]*)*)'; while (<>) { if ($cutting) { |