From 0a79ced6f2844ebfad72416701ad4c427e367f6d Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: jnthn Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2012 11:02:58 +0100 Subject: Add first draft of 2012.02 announce. --- skel/docs/announce/2012.02 | 101 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 101 insertions(+) create mode 100644 skel/docs/announce/2012.02 diff --git a/skel/docs/announce/2012.02 b/skel/docs/announce/2012.02 new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a612989 --- /dev/null +++ b/skel/docs/announce/2012.02 @@ -0,0 +1,101 @@ +Announce: Rakudo Star - a useful, usable, "early adopter" distribution of Perl 6 + +On behalf of the Rakudo and Perl 6 development teams, I'm happy to +announce the February 2012 release of "Rakudo Star", a useful and +usable distribution of Perl 6. The tarball for the February 2012 +release is available from . + +In the Perl 6 world, we make a distinction between the language +("Perl 6") and specific implementations of the language such as +"Rakudo Perl". This Star release includes release #49 of the +Rakudo Perl 6 compiler [1], version 4.1 of the Parrot Virtual +Machine [2], and various modules, documentation, and other +resources collected from the Perl 6 community. + +Here are some of the major improvements in this release over the +previous distribution release. + +* The FatRat type is implemneted, and Rat arithmetic now properly + defaults to Num if the denominator is too big + +* Object hashes are implemented, and can be declared with the syntax + my %h{Any} (for a hash with keys of type Any) + +* The syntax is now implemented in regexes; + can also be used to call predeclared lexical rules + +* The Int($x) coercion syntax is implemented + +* &rename and © are now implemented + +* Improvements to the reduction meta-operator (order of magnitude faster, + some parsing issues fixed) + +* The regex built-in is now available, and matches whatever the + last successful match matched + +* A $match.make(...) method is available to set the AST for a match + object not stored in the $/ variable + +* Improved backtraces + +This release also contains a range of bug fixes, improvements to error +reporting and better failure modes. Many more exceptions are thrown +as typed exceptions. + +Due to continued evolution of and convergence with the Perl 6 spec, there +are some changes to existing functionality that may affect your code: + +* You may no longer use the $.x form in submethods and attribute + initializers, as per spec; use the non-virtual $!x instead. + +* The LHS of the xx operator is now thunked + +* .conjugate is now called .conj + +* Enumeration values .gist to just the key, not the full name + +* An empty Buf is now False in boolean context + +Currently, we have maintained backwards compatibility with some +changed pieces of syntax, but will drop them in an upcoming release: + +* "<...>" in proto regex bodies; now this should be written "*" + +* The use of "**" with a separator in regexes; this is now done by + using "%" or "%%" on another quantifier + +There are some key features of Perl 6 that Rakudo Star does not +yet handle appropriately, although they will appear in upcoming +releases. Some of the not-quite-there features include: + * pack and unpack + * macros + * threads and concurrency + * Unicode strings at levels other than codepoints + * pre and post constraints, and some other phasers + * interactive readline that understands Unicode + * non-blocking I/O + * much of Synopsis 9 + +There is a new online resource at http://perl6.org/compilers/features +that lists the known implemented and missing features of Rakudo Star +2012.02 and other Perl 6 implementations. + +In many places we've tried to make Rakudo smart enough to inform the +programmer that a given feature isn't implemented, but there are +many that we've missed. Bug reports about missing and broken +features are welcomed at . + +See http://perl6.org/ for links to much more information about +Perl 6, including documentation, example code, tutorials, reference +materials, specification documents, and other supporting resources. +An updated draft of a Perl 6 book is available as + in the release tarball. + +The development team thanks all of the contributors and sponsors +for making Rakudo Star possible. If you would like to contribute, +see , ask on the perl6-compiler@perl.org +mailing list, or join us on IRC #perl6 on freenode. + +[1] http://github.com/rakudo/rakudo +[2] http://parrot.org/ -- cgit v1.1