Re: Vendor liason

brian d foy wrote:

> indeed.  Perl Mongers will provide appropriate information for vendors
> when that information is available and Perl 6 is ready for their
> attention.

With all due respect I don't think that a 'Come in when we are done'
approach is going to work.  For example, I'm working on some Solaris
specific perl modules that will appear in the next version of the OS.  I
need 64 bit ints, which means I need perl 5.6.X I knew prior to 5.6.0
being shipped that this was a possibility because I helped Jarkko do
some of the initial testing prior to 5.6.0.  64 bit int support also has
an impact on existing modules that use doubles because 64 bit ints
weren't available at the time I wrote them - I may in the fullness of
time redo them, but that needs to be planned and approved for me to do
it.  I therefore need early visibility of the proposed features and
dates in order to try and dovetail the two sides of the equation.

I assume that the perl community wants quick takeup of new perl versions
as they appear.  The best way of achieving this is to give early
visibility to people who are going to bundle perl, so that they have
sufficient lead time to get it in to their products soon after release.

> if you have special access inside a particular vendor, please let me know.
> i'll develop a list of contacts that i can use to that end.

Me.  I'll be one of the two people integrating perl 5.6.X into Solaris
sometime between now and the next release of Solaris.

-- 
Alan Burlison
Solaris Kernel Development, Sun Microsystems