Weekly Perl 6 mailing list summary for 5-11 November, 2006

Weekly Perl 6 mailing list summary

  This week on the Perl 6 mailing lists

     "...problem 2 is probably just me being confused (though I'd love an
     explanation, from @leo ;-))."

     -- Jonathan Worthington, in 'set_pmc_keyed_int delegates to
     set_pmc_keyed...? <http://xrl.us/s5rk>'


  Language

   how to change the type of objects <http://xrl.us/s6uj>

     In this thread, TSa asked how an object could change its type without
     loosing its identity. As an example, TSa suggested an `add_vertex`
     method which could be called on a polygon but not on a rectangle
     subtype of polygon. Darren Duncan wondered why one would declare a
     type as a rectangle and then mutate it so that it was no longer a
     rectangle. His opinion was that `add_vertex` should be fatal for the
     rectangle; the user can explicitly cast a rectangle into polygon
     first; or that the polygon class is immutable, and the `add_vertex`
     method creates a new polygon.

  Parrot Porters

   Anyone relying on objects stringifying to class names?
   <http://xrl.us/sznk>

     Last week, Jonathan Worthington asked if he could change the behavior
     of ParrotObject instances, but later changed his mind because he
     thought the current system is being used in PGE. This week, Patrick R.
     Michaud responded that he couldn't think of anywhere PGE would be
     using this, and requested an example.

   RFC: Actions without barriers <http://xrl.us/szno>

     Earlier, Bob Rogers and Allison Randal had a discussion on how to
     change action invocations to remove the continuation barrier. It was
     decided that Bob's current approach wouldn't lead them in the desired
     direction. This week, Bob continued to elaborate on Error_handler,
     which he thought was worth keeping under the name of ExitContinuation.

   :init Where should we put the flag? <http://xrl.us/sznp>

     Last week, Kevin Tew asked which flag he should use for `:init`. There
     was some discussion on reusing flags, but tests were not successful.
     This week, Leopold Toetsch replied that it clearly was not safe to
     reuse compile-time flags, and made a list of requirements for flags in
     general and Kevin's request in particular.

   [perl #40626] [BUG] :vtable fails for subclasses of core classes
   <http://xrl.us/szn7>

     Earlier, Patrick R. Michaud reported that the new :vtable pragma
     didn't work when used on methods of subclasses of core classes, and
     added a test demonstrating this to `t/pmc/parrotobject.t`. This was
     ticket [perl #40626] <http://xrl.us/s5rj>. Jonathan Worthington
     thanked him for the test case which enabled him to find the bug.

     This week, Patrick replied that Jonathan may have already addressed an
     issue relating to saved properties of subroutines, but that he was
     providing another test class to show the item that was giving him
     difficulties.

   set_pmc_keyed_int delegates to set_pmc_keyed...? <http://xrl.us/s5rk>

     Patrick R. Michaud had been working on the Capture PMC type and ran in
     to a number of issues with subclassing, which he expressed in his
     post. Leopold Toetsch replied that class inheritance from PMCs will
     hopefully be improved with the `:vtable` patches. Jonathan Worthington
     suggested removing defaults from default.pmc and creating an extra
     attribute for PMCs such as `auto_keyed` which generates missing keyed
     methods. Nicholas Clark was not satisfied with the proposed solution,
     which felt like a hack to him.

     Jonathan Worthington sent a patch which tries to address the root
     problem by searching vtables of parent classes. There were some
     problems with the patch, which led Jonathan to conclude that there's a
     real issue with a subclass always being an instance of ParrotClass
     PMC.

     There was further discussion on possible solutions. Leopold Toetsch
     removed the default as r15111.

   TODO] release prep: update CREDITS and NEWS <http://xrl.us/s5rm>

     In ticket [perl #40686] <http://xrl.us/s5rn>, Jerry Gay requested that
     someone update the CREDITS and NEWS files in preparation for the
     upcoming Parrot release.

   SVN tips in wranglers.pod <http://xrl.us/s5sz>

     Paul Cochrane included a patch on SVN usage tips for
     `doc/dev/wranglers.pod`. He asked for any additional comments.
     Bernhard Schmalhofer suggested that when a commit is associated with a
     ticket, the ticket header can be used in the commit message. Jerry Gay
     replied that he added some material and committed the patch, which is
     r15225.

   [perl #40696] [CAGE] t/doc/pod.t should report filenames upon failure,
   like coding standard tests do <http://xrl.us/s5s2>

     In ticket [perl #40696] <http://xrl.us/s5s3>, Jerry Gay reported that
     `t/doc/pod.t` gives test numbers rather than filenames when failing,
     which isn't very useful. He wanted it changed to one test which
     reports filenames on failure.

   [perl #40632] [TODO] classify failing tests for next release
   <http://xrl.us/szoc>

     In ticket [perl #40632] <http://xrl.us/szvp>, Jerry Gay included a
     list of failing tests. Will Coleda added his failures to the ticket.
     chromatic suggested working from the smoke server to collect and
     upload data.

   How do I associate methods with a compiler? <http://xrl.us/s5tw>

     Patrick R. Michaud gave some background in to the issue, explaining
     how Parrot currently handles compilers, and what PDD21 has to say on
     the subject. He was curious about how to conceptually model compilers
     in Parrot. He favored a compiler with an object which has a `compile`
     method as a model.

     Adriano Rodrigues asked if it would be possible to support both that
     and a subroutine-based system.

     Patrick replied that it was, and both are possible within the existing
     current framework. Patrick was interested in which would be considered
     the standard.

   [perl #40783] [CAGE] get fixme.t to check for an RT ticket number after
   TODO items <http://xrl.us/s5uy>

     In ticket [perl #40783] <http://xrl.us/s6uk>, Paul Cochrane reported
     that `t/codingstd/fixme.t` only searches for 'FIXME|XXX|TODO' and
     suggested that if there is an RT ticket number associated with it, it
     should not be an error. Will Coleda replied that it was fixed in
     r15324.

   [perl #39704] [CAGE] Tcl - Convert TODO/XXX comments to RT tickets
   <http://xrl.us/s5uz>

     Paul Cochrane reported that he had taken all the warnings generated by
     'TODO' items in the code and converted them to RT tickets. This had
     been requested in [perl #39704] <http://xrl.us/sznu>.

   [perl #40788] Tcl - bug in interactive tclsh <http://xrl.us/s6um>

     In ticket [perl #40788] <http://xrl.us/s6un>, Will Coleda noted a
     problem with interactive tclsh.

   [perl #40217] Parrot_autoload_class() knows about Python and Tcl
   <http://xrl.us/s6uo>

     Will Coleda sent a patch to remove a function with hardcoded language
     names. This was in response to ticket [perl #40217]
     <http://xrl.us/rawh>.

  Users

   modifying within a perl5 block <http://xrl.us/s5u3>

     Richard Hainsworth included some example code and committed a test to
     `t/perl5` which demonstrates the problem he is experiencing.

  Compiler

   ANN: Pugs Repository URL Changed. <http://xrl.us/s5u4>

     Audrey Tang announced that the Pugs repository has a new location:

     <http://svn.pugscode.org/pugs/> <https://svn.pugscode.org/pugs/>

     Subversion users should switch their working copy with: `svn switch
     --relocate http://svn.openfoundry.org/pugs
     http://svn.pugscode.org/pugs`

     SVK users should use: `svk mirror --relocate //mirror/pugs
     http://svn.pugscode.org/pugs`

     Further information can be found in the original post.

  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/>