Weekly Perl 6 mailing list summary for 19-25 November, 2006

  This week on the Perl 6 mailing lists

     "...of course [that] can't be a bug as there are no specs ;)"

     -- Leopold Toetsch, in '[perl #40968] [BUG] :multi doesn't seem to
     work right <http://xrl.us/tgtk>'


  Language

   Smart Matching clarification <http://xrl.us/tc7n>

     Last week, Jonathan Lang brought up some information relating to
     hashes and was wondering if the matching operator ought to be modified
     since the concept for hash keys has since changed. Larry Wall replied
     that `===` was correct, but that the decisions on sorting may need to
     be rethought. Jonathan thought that not only was the current
     description suboptimal, it might not even be possible. Darren Duncan
     added in his opinion that .keys should return a Set. Jonathan had some
     concerns about the idea. Meanwhile, Paul Seamons made another
     suggestion based upon Template Toolkit's handling of the concept.

     This week, Darren went in to more detail on the methods which ought to
     be available for Set, Seq and Bag. TSa also added comments on the
     relationship between Seq, Bag and Set.

   Closures, compile time, pad protos <http://xrl.us/tgsp>

     Yuval Kogman initiated a thread on scoping and closures with some code
     examples. Anatoly Vorobey tried to further clarify the question. They
     were not clear on how inner lexically scoped subroutines view their
     enclosing environments. There was some question on how compile-time
     pads are linked at runtime. Juerd's had a question which led Yuval to
     further define the original question.

     Buddha Buck added some comments based upon an understanding of other
     languages; Anatoly joined in the discussion.

   Synopsis 26 <http://xrl.us/tgsq>

     Damian Conway attached S26 and thanked everyone who offered feedback
     on the first draft. He also stated that the Pod-to-XTML module and
     Perl 5 implementation of the POD parser will be available soon.

   implementation for subset types <http://xrl.us/tgss>

     TSa wanted to propose an addition to the subset type definitions,
     namely an implementation body like classes and roles. A rectangle
     example from an earlier thread was included. Jonathan Lang replied
     with an alternate code example.

  Parrot Porters

   RFC: Proposal for dynamic binding <http://xrl.us/tc8i>

     Bob Rogers responded to Leopold Toetsch's earlier request for an
     analysis of the impact of using STM for dynamic binding with a
     detailed comparison.

   set_pmc + setref/deref: anyone using them? <http://xrl.us/tc8n>

     Earlier, Matt Diephouse wanted to know if anyone would be upset if he
     removed the `set_pmc` vtable and the `setref` and `deref` opcodes.
     Allison Randal thought it sounded like a bad idea to simply remove
     opcodes because they were broken. She wanted to know what problem they
     were intended to solve, and what the replacement strategy for is.

     This week, Matt explained what he knew about the history of the
     opcode. Allison agreed with him that `set_pmc` needs to be split from
     `assign_pmc` and that they may need to be renamed. She asked for a
     more complete proposal for creating the new reference pmc so that the
     effects can be carefully considered.

   [perl #40884] [CAGE] update parrothist.pod from email archives
   <http://xrl.us/tc8u>

     Earlier, Paul Cochrane took a stab at ticket [perl #40884]
     <http://xrl.us/tc8v>, which was Chip Salzenberg's request for Parrot
     release names to be recorded. Will Coleda completed the task and gave
     a brief overview of the history of the naming schemes.

   pmc2c.pl: Proposed Strategy for Revisions and Testing
   <http://xrl.us/tc9f>

     Last week, following his introduction to Parrot at the Chicago
     Hackathon, James E Keenan posted a proposal on how `pmc2c.pl` could be
     tested. He hoped for some feedback at an early point to prevent him
     from wasting effort on useless patches.

     He proposed extracting as much functionality as possible in to
     subroutines which are then placed in a package. He also wondered about
     some options which were described in the documentation but didn't
     appear to be used.

     This week, James clarified that `gen_def()` is indeed not used.
     Jonathan Worthington took responsibility for this, and said that he
     thought it was unneeded. James stated his intention to deprecate it.

     Allison Randal advised James to begin with an extensive and tested
     refactor, with Particle's help.

   [perl #40945] [PATCH] languages/abc test suit, basic tests
   <http://xrl.us/tgst>

     Nuno Carvalho created ticket [perl #40945] <http://xrl.us/tgsw> to add
     more features for testing the abc language.

   [perl #40946] [PATCH] languages/abc TODO file <http://xrl.us/tgsx>

     In ticket [perl #40946] <http://xrl.us/tgsy>, Nuno Carvalho included a
     patch which is a TODO file for the abc language tests. This is a list
     of missing tests for features.

   [perl #40951] [tcl] namespace "lost" inside an if statement.
   <http://xrl.us/tgsz>

     In ticket [perl #40951] <http://xrl.us/tgs2>, Will Coleda included
     some example code demonstrating how a Tcl namespace is lost inside of
     an if statement.

   [perl #40947] [PATCH] languages/abc test suit, function tests
   <http://xrl.us/tgs3>

     Nuno Carvalho created ticket [perl #40947] <http://xrl.us/tgs4> to
     submit a patch to add some simple abc functions to the abc test suite.
     It was applied as r15714.

   [perl #40953] [PATCH] languages/abc test harness, correct todo option
   <http://xrl.us/tgs5>

     In ticket [perl #40953] <http://xrl.us/tgs6>, Nuno Carvalho included a
     patch to correct the abc test harness's todo option. It was applied.

   Re: [perl #40955] [BUG] :anon .subs aren't anchored to a namespace
   <http://xrl.us/tgs7>

     Matt Diephouse created ticket [perl #40955] <http://xrl.us/tgs8>. In
     it, he explained the relationship between namespaces and subroutines.
     Namespaces contain subroutines, and subroutines are anchored to
     namespaces. Matt wrote that anonymous subroutines should not be in a
     namespace, but should still be anchored to one; in Parrot this is not
     the case. He included a test case to demonstrate the problem.

     Although the issue was resolved in r15674, this ticket generated some
     discussion. Allison Randal replied that she thought anonymous
     subroutines should not be anchored to a namespace. She thought that
     what Matt had in mind was a new concept, and asked for code examples
     and use cases which would allow her to define the concept better.

     Matt responded with a Perl 5 example, and Allison replied. She
     proposed starting a new thread, which Matt did with ':anon Subs and
     Namespaces <http://xrl.us/tgs9>'. Ben Morrow also replied to the
     original ticket-based thread.

   [perl #40958] [BUG] - can't iterate subclass of ResizablePMCArray
   <http://xrl.us/tgta>

     Patrick R. Michaud reported a problem with using iterators on
     subclasses of `ResizeablePMCArray`. This was ticket [perl #40958]
     <http://xrl.us/tgtb>.

   [perl #40950] [PATCH] Compiling Parrot with the new Borland C++
   <http://xrl.us/tgtc>

     Steve Peters created ticket [perl #40950] <http://xrl.us/tgtd> which
     contains a patch to get Parrot to compile with the new Borland C++. He
     noted that more patches would probably follow.

   [perl #40959] Parrot compile fails on OpenBSD/ppc in src/asmfun.s
   <http://xrl.us/tgte>

     In ticket [perl #40959] <http://xrl.us/tgtf>, Steve Peters reported a
     compilation failure and included the error messages. chromatic thought
     the error looked familiar and proposed a solution.

   [perl #40960] [BUG] :multi namespace pollution <http://xrl.us/tgtg>

     In ticket [perl #40960] <http://xrl.us/tgth>, Matt Diephouse reported
     that making a :multi sub affects the namespace by adding an extra
     entry for the :multi variant.

   Some thoughts on Microsoft Visual C++ 8.0 <http://xrl.us/tgti>

     Ron Blaschke posted a summary of Microsoft's Visual C++ compilers and
     their take on bundled code. Steve Hay replied that he spent a while
     working on the same issues for Perl 5. Ron replied with a link to a
     page he had found on building C/C++ isolated applications and
     side-by-side assemblies.

   3 subroutines with same name <http://xrl.us/tgtj>

     James E Keenan included some snippets from three different files where
     a subroutine with the same name, `gen_c`, is used. All of these are in
     places where he plans to refactor. chromatic suggested whichever one
     is currently used should be considered authoritative. He thought it
     would be nice to compare the output of all three to see if there are
     significant differences between them.

   :anon Subs and Namespaces <http://xrl.us/tgs9>

     This thread continues from 'Re: [perl #40955] [BUG] :anon .subs aren't
     anchored to a namespace <http://xrl.us/tgs7>'.

     Matt Diephouse tried to explain the anonymous subroutine namespace
     issue he is experiencing from the perspective of what Tcl needs. He
     posted some examples of the Tcl PIR. Allison Randal replied that it
     seemed like the same problem as Perl 5's 'main' routine. She also
     tried to explain why having anonymous subroutines anchored to a
     namespace would cause problems in Parrot. She suggested a feature
     which allows a post-compilation modification of the namespace a
     compilation unit uses for default lookups.

   [perl #40968] [BUG] :multi doesn't seem to work right
   <http://xrl.us/tgtk>

     Patrick R. Michaud filed ticket [perl #40968] <http://xrl.us/tgtm> to
     report a problem with underscore arguments in ':multi'. Leopold
     Toetsch replied with some thoughts on how they ought to work, but felt
     that it wasn't exactly a bug. Patrick gave some more detailed examples
     of why the current semantics are not useful. chromatic answered that
     he did not see any reason not to make the primitive types and their
     related PMCs equivalent in the distance value function.

   [perl #40966] [BUG] Parrot core dumps in perl6 (possible GC/pointer
   bug?) <http://xrl.us/tgtn>

     In ticket [perl #40966] <http://xrl.us/tgto>, Patrick R. Michaud
     reported a possible GC or pointer bug.

   [perl #40972] Iterator over Env under Win32 <http://xrl.us/tgtp>

     Bernhard Schmalhofer noticed an iterator test which was being skipped
     under Win32 and wondered if it still needed to be skipped. His post
     was recorded as ticket [perl #40972] <http://xrl.us/tgtq>.

   pmc2c.pl --dump : What Files Does Makefile Supply as @ARGV
   <http://xrl.us/tgtr>

     James E Keenan had a question about how the Parrot Makefile uses
     `pmc2c.pl`. Specifically, he wanted to know what files the Makefile
     places in @ARGV. chromatic replied that he did not see anything except
     the .pmc files.

   [perl #40646] [TODO] PGE - add tests for <alpha+[_]>, <alpha-[Jj]>, etc.
   <http://xrl.us/szoj>

     Patrick R. Michaud created ticket [perl #40646] <http://xrl.us/szvs>
     to request some new tests. He recently added code to add combined
     enumerated classes to PGE. Nuno Carvalho added some tests to the
     `rx_subrule` but noted that two were unexpectedly failing. Patrick
     noted why the tests were failing and corrected them.

  Acknowlegements

     This summary was prepared using Mail::Summary::Tools
     <http://xrl.us/qvno>, available on CPAN.

     If you appreciate Perl, consider contributing to the Perl Foundation
     <http://donate.perlfoundation.org> to help support the development of
     Perl.

     Thank you to everyone who has pointed out mistakes and offered
     suggestions for improving this series. Comments on this summary can be
     sent to Ann Barcomb, <[email protected]>.

  Distribution

     This summary can be found in the following places:

     * use.perl.org <http://use.perl.org/>
     * The Pugs blog <http://pugs.blogs.com/>
     * The perl6-announce mailing list <http://xrl.us/qycj>
     * ONLamp <http://www.oreillynet.com/onlamp/blog/>

  See Also

     * Perl Foundation activities <http://blog.perlfoundation.org>
     * Perl 6 Development <http://dev.perl.org/perl6>
     * Planet Perl Six <http://planetsix.perlfoundation.org/>