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announce.v8
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announce.v8
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Announce: Niecza Perl 6 v8
This is the eighth release of Niecza Perl 6, as usual scheduled on
the last Monday of the month. No major general updates; having
courted alternatives I feel satisfied with the name "Niecza" again.
You can obtain a build of Niecza from [1]. This build contains a
working compiler as a set of .exe and .dll files suitable for use with
Mono or Microsoft .NET. If you wish to follow latest developments,
you can obtain the source from [2]; however, you will still need a
binary for bootstrapping, so you gain nothing from a "source is
better" perspective.
Niecza is a Perl 6 compiler project studying questions about the
efficient implementability of Perl 6 features. It currently targets
the Common Language Runtime; both Mono and Microsoft .NET are known to
work. On Windows, Cygwin is required for source builds only; see the
README for details.
List of changes
[Major features]
$_ $/ $! are more in line with the spec. In particular they are
automatically declared in all Routines, and normal references are
lexical, not dynamic.
Rakudo-style fallback of postcircumfixes to
{at,delete,bind,exists}_{key,pos} is now implemented.
[Minor new features]
[+] is now parsed as a listop, rather than an ad-hoc
half-PREfix half-term.
$$var now functions for captures created using \$var.
substr has been extended to support calling with 4 arguments and with
WhateverCode closures.
<-> now generates rw parameters.
Parameters in blocks now default to Mu.
term:<proceed> is now available.
Added names: term:<proceed>, Complex.Complex,
(Solomon Foster) ln, log, exp, sin
$*foo is a simple lexical fetch if there is $*foo in the current scope.
Improvements to variables: The name can now be omitted; state-variables
are processed correctly when parenthesized or at the top level; will
start is implemented.
Flipflop operators are now supported. (Many thanks to Fitz Elliott for
taking the time to work out the dark corners in the spec and write
comprehensive tests.)
[Selected bug fixes]
do { } is now properly handled as a loop, and responds to labels and
control operators.
given/when no longer eats implicit return values
(Example: "say given 5 { when Int { 42 } }")
Getting involved
Contact sorear in irc.freenode.net #perl6 or via the sender address of
this mailing. Also check out the TODO file; whether you want to work
on stuff on it, or have cool ideas to add to it, both are good.
Future directions
(Yes, this is the same as last month...)
Next month will see a major focus on spectests. Solomon Foster thinks
I can quadruple passing tests in a week; I'm not sure about that but
hope to at least do so in a month. Other features that are planned for
next month include transparent use of CLR libraries, Buf, roles, and
pseudo packages like OUTER::.
[1] https://github.com/downloads/sorear/niecza/niecza-8.zip
[2] https://github.com/sorear/niecza