Weekly Perl 6 mailing list summary for 2-9 September, 2006

  Language

   multi method dispatching of optional arguments <http://xrl.us/roai>

     Mark Stosberg wanted the specifications to address what should happen
     in MMD when optional arguments are present (S12). He patched
     `mmd-draft.txt` and sent the text to the newsgroup. Luke Palmer
     offered a suggestion.

     Ph. Marek wondered if there will be MMD based on the value of
     parameters, as in Haskell. Audrey Tang confirmed this and pointed to
     S06. Trey Harris updated it with a reference to S12. Ruud H.G. van Tol
     also offered an example of syntax.

   when calling sets of methods, what happens to the return values?
   <http://xrl.us/roaj>

     Mark Stosberg asked for clarification in S12 on what happens to return
     values when sets of methods are called. Later he saw that Audrey had
     implemented the functionality and decided to make the final return
     value an unconcatenated list of each method's return value. He thought
     this was fine, but a downside might be that it is hard to identify
     where a return value initiated, since there is no indication which
     methods were called and in which order.

   Unpacking tree node parameters <http://xrl.us/roak>

     Gaal Yahas asked for some clarification on the intent in S06's
     "Unpacking tree node parameters" so that he could introduce the
     optional use of the colon more gradually.

   clarify: how WALK arguments can be combined <http://xrl.us/roam>

     Mark Stosberg wanted to see comments "like Perl 5" and "like multi
     dispatch" expanded in the documentation of the Objects chapter in S12.
     A reference to their specifications would be adequate. Brad Bowman
     commented on what he felt were the allowed combinations of adverbs.
     Mark replied.

   NEXT and the general loop statement <http://xrl.us/qvng>

     Replying to a thread in which Larry Wall stated that exiting blocks
     run in reverse order, Agent Zhang included an IRC conversation with
     Audrey Tang where they reached the conclusion that Larry should
     clarify in what order multiple `NEXT{}` run. Agent requested that this
     be explicitly expressed in S04.

   gather/take definition missing <http://xrl.us/roan>

     Mark Stosberg noted that there are several references to `gather` in
     the documentation, but a formal definition is lacking. He requested
     one.

   C<when> outside of C<given> <http://xrl.us/roap>

     Trey Harris showed an example code where an undef `$_` was seen as
     false like `1 ~~ 0`. He suggested some clarifications on `when`. Mark
     J. Reed disagreed with the suggestion that using `when` should cause
     an error outside of a block which sets `$_`. Trey clarified.

   CATCH: changing the topic and preserving the call stack
   <http://xrl.us/roaq>

     Mark Stosberg referenced error handling in CGI::Application as a use
     case for refining the CATCH specification. He made some comments using
     the Perl 5 code as an example.

   When should a LAST block be triggered? <http://xrl.us/roar>

     Agent Zhang quoted a section of S04 concerning NEXT blocks. This led
     to a question about when LAST blocks are executed. For instance, would
     they only be used if the last iteration of the loop is reached
     normally, when an explicit last is executed, or in all cases where the
     block is exited?

  Parrot Porters

   Some extra reference types <http://xrl.us/roas>

     Jonathan Worthington proposed two new core PMCs, 'references to a
     particular element in an aggregate type' and 'references to a
     register'. The second requires an opcode, and Jonathan would like the
     second to have one as well. He included a PDD patch. Leopold Toetsch
     added another example of where the PMCs would be useful, and commented
     on the proposal.

   Parrot-14347 Patches to get Parrot to build on VMS VAX
   <http://xrl.us/roat>

     Martin Vorländer supplied patches to enable Parrot to build on a VAX.
     Leopold Toetsch made a suggestion for file names. Martin replied that
     he will create another patch when he has finished his project.

   Dynamic PMC building - include and libpath options? <http://xrl.us/roau>

     Jonathan Worthington noted that the include path for BCG was
     hard-coded in the dynamic PMC build script, which causes problems on
     Windows. He suggested that `build/tools/dynpmc.pl` could accept -I and
     -L flags. Leopold Toetsch thought the script should be removed in
     favor of standard Makefile rules.

   #parrotsketch logs: 05SEP06 <http://xrl.us/roav>

     Will Coleda posted the URL of latest #ParrotSketch log
     <http://xrl.us/roaw>.

   [perl #40278] [CAGE] perl coding standards coda. <http://xrl.us/roax>

     In ticket [perl #40278] <http://xrl.us/roay>, Will Coleda created a
     Cage Cleaner's ticket requesting an update of the Perl coding
     standards based upon an update in PDD07.

   [perl #40279] [CAGE] C coding standards coda. <http://xrl.us/roaz>

     In ticket [perl #40279] <http://xrl.us/roa2>, Will Coleda created a
     Cage Cleaner's ticket requesting an update of the C coding standards
     based upon an update in PDD07. Jerry Gay added a new test file for the
     C files, and noted that he'd also add tests for the Perl files
     (mentioned in [perl #40278] [CAGE] perl coding standards coda.
     <http://xrl.us/roax>) when he had time, if nobody else had done it by
     that time.

   select / PIO_unix_poll / IO event <http://xrl.us/roa3>

     Leopold Toetsch found a need for a select/poll system interface. He
     listed what is currently available and talked about how the system
     could be implemented. In r14465 most of the functionality was added.

   (Non)shared interpreter data <http://xrl.us/roa4>

     Leopold Toetsch thought it was time to consider interpreter structures
     and data with regard to threads. He offered his thoughts and solicited
     for comments. Later he replied to a comment to explain that
     continuations could not be used because they should not be shared
     between threads.

   [perl #40292] [TODO] Add JSON tests <http://xrl.us/roa5>

     In ticket [perl #40292] <http://xrl.us/roa6>, Will Coleda noted that
     more tests are required to test the `dumper` output of a PMC generated
     from a JSON string. Nuno Carvalho created a patch, which was applied.

   [perl #40299] [PATCH] Added readdir() function to os.pmc
   <http://xrl.us/roa7>

     In ticket [perl #40299] <http://xrl.us/roa8>, Kay-Uwe Huell included a
     patch for a `readdir` function. It was applied as r14480.

   [perl #40231] [PATCH] t/compilers/pge/06-grammar.t written in PIR
   <http://xrl.us/rawn>

     In ticket [perl #40231] <http://xrl.us/rawo>, Nuno Carvalho rewrote
     `t/compilers/pge/06-grammar.t` in PIR. It was applied as r14504.

   socket related constants <http://xrl.us/roa9>

     Leopold Toetsch felt that socket code is not very user-friendly, and
     wondered if there was a better way to generate constants. chromatic
     offered a comment, and Kevin Tew suggested looking at the PGE grammar
     for C99.

  Users

   RE: Big update to the Perl 6 Workplace Wiki <http://xrl.us/roba>

     Conrad Schneiker reported that he had refactored the Perl 6 Workplace
     wiki <http://rakudo.org/perl6/index.cgi>. He clarified that the
     license would be the same as that used by the Perl 6 branch of the
     Pugs trunk. Mark Overmeer requested that [CPAN6](cpan6.org) and other
     Parrot projects be listed on the wiki.

     Some followups to this thread can also be found in RE: Big update to
     the Perl 6 Workplace Wiki <http://xrl.us/robb>.

   cperl-mode.el: twigils and opers <http://xrl.us/robc>

     Trey Harris noted a problem in `cperl-mode.el` with twigils which
     caused `$.x` to be interpreted as `$.` followed by the x operator. He
     asked for help in fixing it. Steffen Schwigon had been working on it,
     and thought it worked, but suggested trying an older revision to see
     if he had introduced bugs. Trey reported that the old revisions don't
     work and offered some sample code. Steffen offered to look in to it.
     He suggested that longer variable names might work, but short ones
     were still broken.

   IO::Socket, or any IO <http://xrl.us/rawv>

     Earlier, Michael Snoyman had a question on IO in Perl 6. This week,
     Audrey Tang pointed him to examples in
     `examples/network/http-server.pl` in the Pugs tree. Michael clarified
     that he was looking for threading information, and Audrey supplied
     more information.

  Compiler

   Compiling pugs r12925 failed <http://xrl.us/robd>

     Markus Laire reported a failure with compiling Pugs. Audrey Tang
     replied that Gaal Yahas is in the middle of adding some code and
     suggested trying again. Markus also found an error with r12939. Audrey
     was unable to duplicate the problem but tried to fix the code with
     r12945, which worked.

   synopses on smoke server <http://xrl.us/robe>

     Christopher D. Malon quoted Agent Zhang's Pugs blog request for
     regular smoke test results which could be included with Synopses on
     feather. Christopher suggested integrating the synopsis-with-smoke
     with the existing smoke infrastructure. He had some questions about
     how to proceed. Agent Zhang was very interested in seeing the feature
     developed. Ingo Blechschmidt offered some suggestions on
     implementation. Christopher explained why he thought multi-versioning
     of the `t` directory was critical.

     Meanwhile, Yuval Kogman noted two other smoke servers Christopher
     could look at. Jesse Vincent clarified some details on the second
     server Yuval mentioned, Chimps.

  Acknowlegements

     This summary was prepared using Mail::Summary::Tools
     <http://xrl.us/qvno>, now 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.perl.org/perl6>