[release] announcement for 2012.11

docs/announce/2012.11

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+    Announce: Rakudo Perl 6 compiler development release #58 ("Walnut")
+
+On behalf of the Rakudo development team, I'm thrilled to announce the
+November 2012 release of Rakudo Perl #58 "Edinburgh". Rakudo is an
+implementation of Perl 6 on the Parrot Virtual Machine (see
+<http://www.parrot.org>). The tarball for this release
+is available from <http://github.com/rakudo/rakudo/downloads>.
+
+Please note: This announcement is not for the Rakudo Star
+distribution[*] -- it's announcing a new release of the compiler only.
+For the latest Rakudo Star release, see
+<http://github.com/rakudo/star/downloads>.
+
+The Rakudo Perl compiler follows a monthly release cycle, with each release
+named after a Perl Mongers group. The November 2012 release is code-named
+after Walnut, home of "Yet Another Society" aka "The Perl Foundation".
+
+This release brings changes; some of them are outlined below:
+
++ implemented precedence related traits (equiv, looser, tighter, assoc)
++ Perl 6 grammar NFAs are pre-computed, saving some work on each invocation; this
+  shaved around 10% off the time needed to run the spectests
++ regexes and quotes have better support for user-selected delimiters
++ heredocs
++ FIRST/NEXT/LAST can now be used in all types of loop (previously limited to for)
+
+This is only a small peek at 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 and the specification.
+
+The following people contributed to this release:
+
+Jonathan Worthington, Moritz Lenz, Patrick R. Michaud, Solomon Foster,
+diakopter, Timothy Totten
+
+If you would like to contribute, see <http://rakudo.org/how-to-help>,
+ask on the perl6-compiler@perl.org mailing list, or ask on IRC #perl6
+on freenode.
+
+The next release of Rakudo (#59) is scheduled for December 20, 2012. A
+list of the other planned release dates and code names for future
+releases is available in the "docs/release_guide.pod" file. In general,
+Rakudo development releases are scheduled to occur soon after each Parrot
+monthly release. Parrot releases the third Tuesday of each month.
+
+On behalf of the development team, I encourage you to try the new release,
+to live life to its fullest, to cherish each moment, and to have fun.
+
+[*] 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, 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.