2020.02

On behalf of the Rakudo development team, I’m very happy to announce the
February 2020 release of Rakudo #134. Rakudo is an implementation of
the Raku¹ language.

The source tarball for this release is available from
https://rakudo.org/files/rakudo.
Pre-compiled archives will be available shortly.

New in 2020.02:

• Changes:
  • throws-like sub from Test module now throws an exception on
    Bool:D matchers [f4ad0c2][50f084d][5696dbd]
  • RAKUDOLIB environment variable now mentioned in --help [f9b7de2]
  • Supply.repeated now has unique rather than squish semantics [0521331]
• Fixes:
  • Fix mixing in Raku-level code to the grammar [992f1b8]
  • Fixed concurrency issue with re-checking a precomp file's dependencies [f5ce80e]
  • Ensure Rakudo can be located in a path with Unicode characters on Windows [4c6cd03]
  • Smart matching a Regex no longer breaks if $/ is not a container [b777d6f]
  • raku -v now mentions Raku as the languages [15621b8]
  • Fixed typecheck on bound attributes (is built(:bind))
    [4b64338][8920343][8a46fca][d75a703]
  • Fixed location of REPL history and made the RAKUDO_HIST
    environment variable work [c5c98de][94713af]
  • Fixed problem with .rotor when given a Seq [c7e0df6]
  • Restored exact stringification behaviour of index, indices, contains on List [2176292]
  • Improved invalid TypeSmiley error message [246f20d]
  • Assume 1 core is always available in case nqp::cpucores fails [1a7f16b]
  • Lock.protect now allows return of a container [b90beba]
  • Fixed Parameter.raku's handling of default values [21b8097][2aa4d09]
  • Work around spurious error in Lock::Async that
    could lead to crashing [d18d6e9][2854144]
  • Fixed handle leak when chaining Proc::Async [cdbd60c]
  • Restore creating a Parameter instance using named arguments [b2c809e]
  • Fixed behavior of eqv operator on two Seq objects [76187b5]
  • Fixed variable declared by shape match in signature [ca78390]
  • Fixed calling of a module sub without & and parentheses [e1faa70]
  • Fixed consuming of all Channel values which has prevented
    reusing it in multiple react blocks [6fbfc4a]
  • Fixed usage of $^a withing a substitution regex [50ca2ed][adb85e4]
  • Fixed clonning of multi-dim arrays [4a954cb]
  • Fixed $*USER and other dynamic variables coercion for some buggy cases [3a86272]
  • Fixed internal compiler error on parameter re-declaration [3498c54]
  • Fixed unhandled exceptions in REPL [6bf227d]
  • Fixed stringification if Signature for some edge cases [b2962b1][56ccd13]
  • Fixed is rw trait application to roles [4de852e][85660c8]
  • Improved error message when putting a positional parameter after a named one [8dcf1a8]
  • Improved error message when referring to a non-existent class whose name contains a :: [ca1e51c]
  • Improved error message for Buf stringification [539e96c][3f637af]
  • Made sure Version objects can coerce themselves [5eb113b]
  • Various fixes for JVM backend [a08f043][5984ce9]
• Additions:
  • Enable user-defined chaining operators to work [d027ee0]
  • Added prefix and suffix methods to Parameter class which return
    textual prefix and suffix of the parameter [bd68955]
  • Made an improperly typed default for an attribute a compile time error
    [d8e859d][05b5f81][a8bb85a][b6fa5f5][13c9da9][4c0761a][c592b80]
  • Added SetHash.set and SetHash.unset methods [6df78ca]
  • Added BagHash.add and BagHash.remove methods [c1b8ff6]
  • Str.contains now also can take a Regex [c3c5dae]
  • Add :i(ignorecase) and :m(ignoremark) support to
    index, starts-with, ends-with, contains, substr-eq, indices
    [49aaa6f][60b0d86][8498774][0b2236a][d91c773][2e3c091][46ef7f4]
    [9f71002][19576d6][90fc61b][ec13c3d][ea44c19][327c74a][73c5a25]
    [d49a418][5a716a3][7cb0481][0761a88][b140d7a][c2e608b][a6acfd0]
    [aefc851][597288b][b32048d]
  • The IterationBuffer class now has a Seq method [c87f5df]
  • The Compiler class now has a backend method [61b416e]
  • The Match class now has a replace-with method
    [b43c839][1ac3c5c][7f3e852][cd4ab4f][930e518]
    [488feaf][b4e0012]
  • Cool.subst doesn't need a replacement string anymore [dfb563a]
  • Supply.first now also works without a matcher [57dbc35]
  • Properly show enums, subsets and routine return type in Pod::To::Text output
    [f60d969][91f8943][0b0a1aa]
  • Added iterator implementation for Junction (fixes e.g. calling ^name on a Junction) [bceaeb1]
• Removals:
  • Remove deprecated support for implicit Distribution::Builder prefix [593db2d]
• Build system:
  • Implement an automated pipeline to create precompiled releases
    [6504be7][d01d4b2][aaf9a93][8c995fe]
  • Implement --git-cache-dir Configure.pl option.
    It can save time and bandwidth when doing more than one build [322b095][ac6c437]
  • Add a --build-only option for install-dist.p6 script [4c6c027]
  • made building optional when installing in install-dist.p6 script [411db10]
• Efficiency:
  • Simplify exception throwing in bootstrap [d18c69b]
  • Made Seq.list return cached list if present [8ccfa87]
  • Made .List and .Slip more efficient [d1d931a]
  • Made Str.comb(Regex) about 1.8x as fast [9e8adb6][4df7472]
  • Made Str.split(Regex) about 15% faster [931f5ae][ba2c58a]
  • Made Supply.unique a few percent faster [32bd4ed]
  • Made internal Match stringification a few percent faster [495ddcc]
  • Made various aspects of Date and DateTime faster
    [076ef98][ced67b8][b086a9f][99b67a4][e979f17][af8cca7]
    [65d0422][b19c4ee][fa7d3bf][16962c8][c0e8091][0286904]
  • Made Date.new(Str) about 9.8x as fast [0408d6e][497afda]
  • Made Date.new(Instant) about 12.5x as fast [f91a161]
  • Made Date.today about 4.5x as fast [1d7a916][7a2d68f][1344419][8876e03]
  • Made Date.earlier / Date.later between 1.5x and 5.5x as fast [4ebbddf][5943cbf]
  • Made Date.succ / Date.pred (used in ++ and --) about 2.8x as fast [9707384]
  • Made Date integer arithmetic about 2.3x as fast [cfe2cdc]
  • Made Date.Str about 250x as fast with the default formatter [67022d4]
  • Made DateTime.new(Str) about 30% faster [578935e]
  • Made DateTime.Str about 90x as fast with the default formatter [a331ac4][2b7d5ff]
  • Made Instant.new a few percent faster [5b97dde][bd948ba]
  • Made creation of a Junction about 3.5x as fast [470f7fd]
  • Made Junction.defined between 15% and 40% faster [7a561d6][423d9ad][6844be9]
  • Hash.DELETE-KEY does one less hash lookup [9217b1c]
  • Made various aspects of Proc::Async faster [0c5a707][ca49dcb][1db4161][356bf3f][05916ef]
  • Made Channel.list around 16x faster [82bd76f]
• Internal:
  • Preparations for UNIX sockets support [7c7d3b9][1a5b218][ed4226d][ce5b5de][62cb756]
  • Simplify leap date updating logic [25c84b3][bdb0074]
  • Removed perlcritic config file [5ac792a]
  • Add support for use BUILDPLAN class [8fdce75]
  • Add support for nqp arrays to dd [255318e]
  • Change of IO::Path!new-from-absolute-path internal method signature [1d946e1]
  • Correctly set up values for $*DISTRO initialization [22d5ffc]
  • Change file extensions to Raku format
    [61821ff][8c242d5][582c14a][5e9d98c][ea1cb40][3b8104e]
    [4677f74][ac652c0][e572320][deac440][7b67960][416fd51]
    [ca99c7c][5437517][82ea329][4ec31e2]
  • Other internal changes related to Perl 6 -> Raku migration
    [10e5390][8fd7172][af29258][81014e7][925e73d][dd7b4ce]
  • Tests added [2132019][ffabf8d]
  • Remove unused nqp::p6decodelocaltime as NQP has nqp::decodelocaltime [e2ba546][663c427]
  • Rename the Junction $!storage attribute to $!eigenstates [1a6f83c][911cac4]
  • Simplify fetching of the kept Promise sentinel in Lock::Async [e81e516]
  • Simplify Parameter.raku implementation and improve how it handles parametert names [3f6a2a2]
  • Added *_RUNNER_OPTS variable to Makefiles [701c38d]
  • Make rakudo binaries default ones and perl6 to be aliases,
    as well as include some other renaming-related changes
    [f5f6f76][23ca695][519a741][536a2d2]

The following people contributed to this release:

Elizabeth Mattijsen, Juan Julián Merelo Guervós, Jonathan Worthington,
Stoned Elipot, Vadim Belman, Patrick Böker, Daniel Green, Will "Coke"
Coleda, Alexander Kiryuhin, Ben Davies, Stefan Seifert, Trey Harris,
Christian Bartolomäus, Josh Soref, Aleks-Daniel Jakimenko-Aleksejev,
Brian Duggan, Luis F. Uceta, Mikhail Khorkov, Tom Browder, Jan-Olof Hendig,
Jeremy Studer, Konrad Bucheli, Rod Taylor, Samantha McVey, Bahtiar Gadimov,
Ven de Thiel.

This release implements 6.c and 6.d versions of the Raku specification.
6.c version of the language is available if you use the use v6.c
version pragma, otherwise 6.d is the default.

Upcoming releases in 2020 will include new functionality that is not
part of 6.c or 6.d specifications, available with a lexically scoped
pragma. Our goal is to ensure that anything that is tested as part of
6.c and 6.d specifications will continue to work unchanged. There may
be incremental spec releases this year as well.

If you would like to contribute or find out more information, visit
https://raku.org, https://rakudo.org/how-to-help, ask on the
perl6-compiler@perl.org mailing list, or ask on IRC #raku on freenode.

Additionally, we invite you to make a donation to The Perl Foundation
to sponsor Raku development: https://donate.perlfoundation.org/
(put “Raku Core Development Fund” in the ‘Purpose’ text field)

The next release of Rakudo (#135), is tentatively scheduled for 2020-02-22.

A list of the other planned release dates is available in the
“docs/release_guide.pod” file.

The development team appreciates feedback! If you’re using Rakudo, do
get back to us. Questions, comments, suggestions for improvements, cool
discoveries, incredible hacks, or any other feedback – get in touch with
us through (the above-mentioned) mailing list or IRC channel. Enjoy!

Please note that recent releases have known issues running on the JVM.
We are working to get the JVM backend working again but do not yet have
an estimated delivery date.

1. See https://raku.org/ ↩