Weekly Perl 6 mailing list summary for 18-24 March, 2007

Weekly Perl 6 mailing list summary

  This week on the Perl 6 mailing lists

     This week saw the introduction of the Perl 6 Microgrants. Read more
     about them in 'Perl 6 Microgrants. Now accepting proposals.
     <http://xrl.us/vrn9>'


  Language

   Re: Synopsis 26 <http://xrl.us/vrny>

     Thom Boyer responded to Damian Conway's post from November which
     thanked people for offering feedback on the first draft. Thom said
     that he had been unable to find the XHTML version of S26 and wondered
     if it was available.

     Jerry Gay replied that there wasn't a pod parser available yet. Damian
     responded with the requested file, and said he still hoped to finish
     the Pod6 parser but he wasn't sure when he would have time.

     Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason asked if Damian could post the code he
     currently has, so that others could work on it.

   Enhanced enumerations <http://xrl.us/vr8s>

     Jonathan Lang proposed a module which would let you set a cycle for
     enumerations. For instance, a 'seasons' enumeration might be defined
     as 'spring, summer, autumn, winter' and incrementing summer would
     result in winter. Andy Armstrong described enumeration as a simple
     state machine.

   Parrot 0.4.10 released <http://xrl.us/vr8t>

     Will Coleda announced the release of Parrot 0.4.10 and highlighted
     some of the improvements made with this version. This release is named
     "The Release Formerly Known as "Prince"."

  Parrot Porters

   [perl #41870] [TODO] create config file processing library for use in
   pir <http://xrl.us/vrnz>

     In ticket [perl #41870] <http://xrl.us/vr8u>, Jerry Gay requested a
     configuration file processing library to use in PIR code. Will Coleda
     did this.

   [perl #41871] [BUG]: t/pmc/metaclass.t fails on Darwin
   <http://xrl.us/vr83>

     In ticket [perl #41871] <http://xrl.us/vr8v>, James Keenan reported a
     failure he'd encountered with `make test`. Later he reported that he
     had heard that this test was supposed to fail, and suggested making it
     a TODO. chromatic said that expected failures need to be marked as
     TODO, because volunteer time is being wasted. Jonathan Worthington
     agreed.

   [perl #41878] [TODO] create exporter pmc <http://xrl.us/vrn3>

     Jerry Gay noted in ticket [perl #41878] <http://xrl.us/vr8w> that
     Allison Randal had replaced the `.IMPORT` macro with the `export_to`
     namespace which was defined in PDD21. However, the code was lacking
     safety checks and he suggested creating an Exporter PMC.

     Allison elaborated by suggesting an interface. Patrick R. Michaud
     added his comments. A discussion on importing followed, with Will
     Coleda also contributing.

   [perl #41881] [CAGE] Redo CONTEXT(interp->ctx)->foo <http://xrl.us/vrn4>

     Paul Cochrane created ticket [perl #41881] <http://xrl.us/vr8x> from
     the `cage/todo.pod`. Jonathan Worthington was not sure that
     eliminating the macro there would be the correct thing to do.

   [perl #41886] [CAGE] Use lcov to show code coverage <http://xrl.us/vrn5>

     In ticket [perl #41886] <http://xrl.us/vr8y>, Paul Cochrane noted that
     the `Icov` tool can be used to produce HTML output of code coverage
     information. He thought a `make cover` target could be added to the
     Makefile.

     Paul Johnson mentioned the option of using Devel::Cover to generate
     the reports. Paul Cochrane also noted that there was a script in
     `tools/dev/parrot_coverage.pl`.

   [perl #38988] [PDD] review pdd07_codingstd.pod <http://xrl.us/vrn6>

     Will Coleda reopened ticket [perl #38988] <http://xrl.us/vr8z> because
     PDD07 contained a marker indicating that Chip had edited part of it,
     and everything below needed review.

   [perl #41505] [CAGE] Cleanup and reorganize documentation related to svn
   properties <http://xrl.us/vrn7>

     Will Coleda created ticket [perl #41505] <http://xrl.us/u3sc> to
     suggest that documentation of all svn properties needs to be cleaned
     up and reorganized. Paul Cochrane attempted to do this with r17591.

   rpm package <http://xrl.us/vrn8>

     Steven Pritchard remarked that he had been working on getting a
     package built for Fedora, and shared his current package. Allison
     Randal asked if he had kept track of the things which caused problems,
     so that the packaging process could be improved.

     chromatic speculated that installation paths which are not present or
     are incorrect is a common problem. Allison agreed, and wondered if
     some tests could be created to check for installation paths. Mike
     Mattle explained some of the difficulties in doing this. Joshua Isom
     thought that it would not too difficult.

     Steven made a list of his three major problems: hardcoded 'lib',
     `LD_LIBRARY_PATH` had to be set to `blib/lib` in the top directory,
     and the `languages/` files aren't automatically installed.

   Re: [perl #39823] [CAGE] tools/dev/run_indent.pl -- this should be a
   test <http://xrl.us/vr82>

     Jerry Gay felt that there should be a coding standards test to ensure
     that C source files have the correct indentation. Some time ago he
     created ticket [perl #39823] <http://xrl.us/vtb2> on this subject.

     Recently, Paul Cochrane asked if `t/codingstd/c_indent.t` met the
     requirement. Jerry replied that there were still some further checks
     which should be implemented as tests.

   [perl #41884] [PATCH] gcc/mingw32-make compilation failure under MSWin32
   <http://xrl.us/vr84>

     In ticket [perl #41884] <http://xrl.us/vtb3>, Alexandr Ciornii
     submitted a patch to fix a compilation error on Win32.

   [perl #41885] [BUG] All the dynoplibs/dynpmcs fail on freebsd
   <http://xrl.us/vr85>

     Joshua Isom created ticket [perl #41885] <http://xrl.us/vtb4> to
     report failures for dynpmc and dynoplib tests on FreeBSD 6.0. Paul
     Cochrane noted that it also happens on FreeBSD 6.1.

   [perl #41168] graceful "no compiler" error message? <http://xrl.us/vr9b>

     Earlier, in ticket [perl #41168] <http://xrl.us/t77y>, Will Coleda
     added a request for a 'no compiler found' error message in
     `configure.pl`.

     A patch was supplied by chromatic, and applied by Paul Cochrane in
     r17614. Paul asked for someone to check if it also worked on Windows,
     because he had only been able to test it on Linux. Jerry Gay confirmed
     that it worked.

   [perl #41889] [PATCH] hoist cut and paste duplication into a function in
   src/library.c, also possible win32 bug found ? <http://xrl.us/vr9d>

     Mike Mattie created ticket [perl #41889] <http://xrl.us/vtb5>. He
     thought he had seen some duplication in `src/library.c` and so he
     attached a patch which corrected it. He wasn't able to test it on
     Win32, however.

     Jonathan Worthington noted that some of the code Mike thought was
     broken worked. He also planned to apply the patch. Eventually this was
     done as r17626.

     Nicholas Clark had some comments on the algorithm involved, and some
     questions about 2-letter drive names. There was some further
     discussion on the temporary solution and the proposed final resolution
     of the issue. Joshua Juran was also involved in the discussion.

     Later, Mike posted another patch to `src/library.c`, meant to be
     applied after the previous patch. This was ticket [perl #41900]
     <http://xrl.us/vtb6>. It was applied as r17628.

     After this, Mike supplied a third and a fourth patch in [perl #41902]
     <http://xrl.us/vtb7> and [perl #41903] <http://xrl.us/vtb8>. These
     were later replaced with [perl #41905] <http://xrl.us/vtb9>. Ticket
     [perl #41906] <http://xrl.us/vtca> was also part of this series. Jerry
     Gay was able to confirm that it works on Win32 and it was applied as
     r17630.

     Finally, ticket [perl #41918] <http://xrl.us/vtcb> addressed some
     spelling errors noted by Jerry Gay. It was applied as r17680.

   [perl #38764] Test results of parrot on Freebsd <http://xrl.us/vr9e>

     Paul Cochrane submitted the output of `make test` on FreeBSD 6.1.
     chromatic had also seen a failure with `t/stm/llqueue.t` but
     considered the other errors unexpected. He asked if Paul had GDBM
     installed. Paul answered in the affirmative. This was covered in
     ticket [perl #38764] <http://xrl.us/vk9v>.

   parrot-0.4.9 ebuild for the gentoo distribution (WIP)
   <http://xrl.us/vr9g>

     Mike Mattie has been working on a Gentoo ebuild for the 0.4.9 release.
     He noted that some paths are mistakenly installed by Parrot and that
     rpm had the same problem. He included a copy of the build.

   the value of maintaining a working install target to the parrot project
   <http://xrl.us/vr9h>

     Mike Mattie described himself as a programmer interested in the Parrot
     virtual machine. He found that one of his biggest obstacles to working
     with Parrot is that it doesn't have a working install target. He
     explained his reasoning and needs in depth.

     Allison Randal replied that it was well-known that the install process
     needs improvement, and patches and suggestions are welcome. She
     addressed many of Mike's points, and welcomed proposals which may come
     from the careful analysis Mike offered.

   [perl #41892] t/stm/llqueue segment violation on test #2
   <http://xrl.us/vr9i>

     In ticket [perl #41892] <http://xrl.us/vtcc>, Erik Johansen reported
     an error on SuSe Linux 10.2.

   [perl #41893] [BUG] 0.4.9 leaks various .c files into install image,
   creates PREFIX/config, PREFIX/compiler <http://xrl.us/vr9j>

     Mike Mattie reported some files installed by 'reallyinstall' which
     don't belong in the install image. He reported this in ticket [perl
     #41893] <http://xrl.us/vtcd>.

   [perl #41894] segfault happens when invoking poll op
   <http://xrl.us/vrsy>

     Jim McKim created ticket [perl #41894] <http://xrl.us/vtcf> to report
     a segmentation fault.

   [perl #41895] [TODO] Use Getopt for argument parsing in perlcritic.t
   <http://xrl.us/vr9k>

     Paul Cochrane wanted to improve `t/codingstd/perlcritic.t` by using
     Getopt::Long instead of a non-standard argument parser. He stated this
     in ticket [perl #41895] <http://xrl.us/vtcg>.

   [perl #41896] [BUG] p5rx tests consuming infinite resources on win32
   <http://xrl.us/vr9n>

     In ticket [perl #41896] <http://xrl.us/vtch>, Jerry Gay reported that
     in r17619 he cannot run `make test` due to failures in the p5rx tests.
     He suspected a string GC problem. chromatic thought this might explain
     the STM test failure as well. Jerry replied that STM tests are
     disabled on Windows so he cannot see if the problem is related. He
     committed a fix in r17649.

   [perl #41897] [BUG]: Parrot::Pmc2c::STMRef gets 'subroutine prederef
   redefined' warning <http://xrl.us/vr9o>

     James Keenan found that Devel::Cover sometimes reveals issues which
     don't appear with `prove` or `make test`. He reported a warning which
     he saw with Devel::Cover in ticket [perl #41897] <http://xrl.us/vtci>.

   [perl #41898] Build error with icc <http://xrl.us/vr9p>

     In ticket [perl #41898] <http://xrl.us/vtcj>, Paul Cochrane reported a
     build error when trying to use icc.

   [perl #41908] [PATCH] 5 feature enhancement of src/library.c (extension
   guessing), and solutions for the install target problems
   <http://xrl.us/vr9v>

     Mike Mattie launched ticket [perl #41908] <http://xrl.us/vtck> to
     offer a patch to enhance `Parrot_locate_runtime_str`. It introduced
     two new static functions. Mike went into some detail on his reasons
     behind the patch. It was applied as r17632.

     There was some discussion of it in '[perl #41908] merging extension
     guessing feature for library.c <http://xrl.us/vsaa>'.

   [RFC] solutions for maintaining the install target, will affect
   developers work-flow <http://xrl.us/vr9w>

     Mike Mattie described some of the patches he has been writing (see
     [perl #41908] [PATCH] 5 feature enhancement of src/library.c
     (extension guessing), and solutions for the install target problems
     <http://xrl.us/vr9v> and [perl #41889] [PATCH] hoist cut and paste
     duplication into a function in src/library.c, also possible win32 bug
     found ? <http://xrl.us/vr9d>). He asked for feedback before he moves
     further with the proposals he outlined in ticket [perl #41908]
     <http://xrl.us/vtck>.

   Re: [PATCH] Quiet a few alignment warnings <http://xrl.us/vr92>

     Earlier, In ticket [perl #37178] <http://xrl.us/vk9s>, Will Coleda
     applied a patch which quieted some alignment warnings. Andy Dougherty
     had created it some time ago. He hoped someone else would take up the
     task of trying to document and check Parrot's alignment assumptions.
     Later, the patch had to be removed because it had introduced some
     problems. One problem was that it incorrectly assumed that all
     compilers accept a `-h`, `--help` or `/?` switch. He and chromatic
     tried to find a solution but were not successful; chromatic promised
     to work on a better patch.

     More recently, Andy Dougherty figured out part of the problem.
     Nicholas Clark and chromatic also discussed the issue further.

   [perl #38969] [CAGE] parrot source does not conform to standards
   <http://xrl.us/vr93>

     In ticket [perl #38969] <http://xrl.us/vtcm>, Paul Cochrane suggested
     removing `tools/dev/check_source_standards.pl` because the tests which
     were previously in the file had been moved to `t/codingstd`. Jerry Gay
     directed Paul to [perl #39824] <http://xrl.us/vtcn>.

   [perl #41912] [CAGE] survey tools/ dir for unused, old, or broken code,
   and remove or fix as necessary <http://xrl.us/vrsc>

     Jerry Gay created ticket [perl #41912] <http://xrl.us/vtco>. He
     proposed that scripts and utilities in `tools/` be checked to see if
     they are still in use. James Keenan took a stab at this.

   [perl #41915] [TODO] remove unused manifest-generating scripts
   <http://xrl.us/vr94>

     Jerry Gay named some broken and possibly unused scripts in
     `tools/dev`, many related to manifest generation. He wondered if one
     script could replace them. Paul Cochrane linked this ticket ([perl
     #41915] <http://xrl.us/vtcp>) to another ticket, [perl #40911]
     <http://xrl.us/tc88>.

   Re: [perl #41201] [TODO] Remove temporary conf hack in Configure.pl
   <http://xrl.us/vr95>

     Earlier, In ticket [perl #41201] <http://xrl.us/t9nf>, Paul Cochrane
     noted that there is a temporary hack in `Configure.pl` which should be
     implemented properly.

     Recently, James Keenan submitted a patch which attempts to address
     this.

   [perl #41926] [PATCH] partial update of NEWS for 0.4.10
   <http://xrl.us/vr97>

     Jerry Gay submitted a partial update for `NEWS` for update 0.4.10 and
     asked someone to finish it. This was ticket [perl #41926]
     <http://xrl.us/vtcq>.

   [perl #41927] [PATCH] getting gen_manifest_skip() to return correct
   results quickly <http://xrl.us/vr98>

     Paul Cochrane submitted a patch in ticket [perl #41927]
     <http://xrl.us/vtcr> which he attributed to Jerry Gay, Will Coleda and
     himself. It makes `gen_manifest_skip` return a list of the ignore
     files.

   Countdown to 0.4.11 <http://xrl.us/vsab>

     Matt Diephouse created a list of tickets that he wanted to see
     resolved for release 0.4.11. As it just so happens, 0.4.11 was
     released the day this summary was completed, so this message is not
     worth summarizing.

   [perl #41955] [PATCH] Yet Another PIR -- in C <http://xrl.us/vsac>

     Klaas-Jan Stol submitted a patch of an implementation of PIR in C in
     ticket [perl #41955] <http://xrl.us/vtcs>. His goal was to clean up
     PIR and to see if a rewrite would reduce the size.

     Joshua Isom wondered what Klaas-Jan considered 'hackish' and how much
     more work he thought it would take to get the bytecode working.
     Klaas-Jan replied that he referred to the 'TODO', 'FIXME' and other
     comment scattered throughout the code and that he couldn't make an
     estimate on the bytecode although it probably wasn't trivial.

     Allison Randal said that she was happy to see it in `compilers/pir` as
     an experiment in progress.

   [perl #41956] [TODO] Rename PMETHOD and PMINVOKE <http://xrl.us/vsad>

     Jonathan Worthington reported in ticket [perl #41956]
     <http://xrl.us/vtcu> that it had been decided (in a discussion with
     Allison Randal) to rename `PMETHOD` and `PMINVOKE` to `PCCMETHOD` and
     `PCCINVOKE`. Kevin Tew wondered if `PRETURN` should become
     `PCCRETURN`. Jonathan Worthington said he'd already created a ticket
     for that, [perl #42001] <http://xrl.us/vtcv>.

   lang/pir tests fail <http://xrl.us/vsae>

     Klaas-Jan Stol reported this test failure, as well as some in
     `languages/Pynie`.

   [PATCH] void functions can't return values. <http://xrl.us/vsaf>

     Andy Dougherty submitted a patch because the documentation for
     `Parrot_set_attrib_by_num` suggests it returns a PMC pointer, but the
     source code doesn't actually return anything.

   [PATCH] Avoid //-style comments. <http://xrl.us/vsag>

     Andy Dougherty submitted a patch to remove `//` style comments because
     some compilers don't understand them. Also, he thought it was a bad
     idea to comment out sections of code without explaining why they were
     commented out. H.Merijn Brand also expressed his distaste for this
     type of comment.

     Matt Diephouse applied the patch in r17692. He said that there was a
     test for C++ style comments, but that it doesn't appear to check all
     generated code.

   [PATCH] Hints must come early in Configure.pl <http://xrl.us/vsah>

     Andy Dougherty explained that hints need to come before inter/progs.
     He submitted a patch to correct this. James E Keenan reported that
     Will Coleda made the change Andy advised in r17671, which was
     basically reverting to r16268 from a change made in r16416. He linked
     to information about these previous commits.

     chromatic wondered if there was some way that the problems James
     referenced (which were on his system) could be fixed in some other
     way. James and chromatic tried to resolve the issue. Andy added his
     two cents.

   [PATCH] Suppress optimization on core_ops_cgp.c <http://xrl.us/vsai>

     Andy Dougherty reported that `core_ops_cgp.c` overwhelms his system
     and that he couldn't figure out a better way to solve it other than to
     turn off optimization. He supplied a patch for it.

   [perl #41975] Makefile is missing dependencies on
   lib/Parrot/Pmc2c/PMETHODs.pm <http://xrl.us/vsaj>

     In ticket [perl #41975] <http://xrl.us/vtcw>, Andy Dougherty reported
     that he had to fix `lib/Parrot/Pmc2c/PMETHODS.pm` to get Parrot to
     compile, but that `make` didn't generate the required files after his
     fix.

   make test hangs in t/examples/shootout_1.pir <http://xrl.us/vsak>

     Andy Dougherty reported that `t/examples/shootout_1.pir` was hanging
     when he tried to `make test`. It ran for 15 hours before he killed it.

   [perl #42040] tools/dev/mk_manifest_and_skip.pl doesn't pick up files
   that are marked svn deleted but not yet committed <http://xrl.us/vsao>

     Kevin Tew noted that `tools/dev/mk_manifest_and_skip.pl` should remove
     files from the MANIFEST if they are scheduled for subversion deletion.
     This was ticket [perl #42040] <http://xrl.us/vtcx>.

  Compiler

   Perl 6 Microgrants. Now accepting proposals. <http://xrl.us/vrn9>

     Jesse Vincent announced the Perl 6 Microgrants program. Leon Brocard,
     representing the Perl Foundation's grants committee, will work with
     Jesse to select proposals for projects. Grants are for 500 USD.
     Proposals should be for projects which can be completed in 4-6
     calendar weeks.

     Tim Bunce suggested that someone could create a tool which could parse
     that Java files which define the JDBC API and generate Perl 6. He did
     not want to submit the proposal himself, but hoped someone would take
     it up. There were a few comments on this suggestion. Phil Crow had
     some interest in the idea.

  cvs-parrot

   [svn:parrot] r17623 - trunk <http://xrl.us/vsap>

     Paul Cochrane removed some code for MacOS Classic after few people
     showed interest in targeting this operating system. chromatic rightly
     noted that the code could be taken from subversion if it was needed at
     some point in the future.

  Acknowledgements

     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/>