Perl 5.14 Released 187
chromatic writes "Pumpking Jesse Vincent has just released Perl 5.14, the latest stable version of the venerable Perl 5 programming language. The list of changes in Perl 5.14 includes several enhancements, including performance tuning, Unicode improvements, and updates to the core libraries and documentation. Perl 5.16 is on track for a release next April."
Re:What about Perl 6? (Score:5, Informative)
Perl 6 is out. But it's a diffent language in the same way that python 3 is not like py 2.7
The thing I really like about perl is it's the shortest oreily pocket reference. it's even shorter than c++. Yet you can do vastly more than python without importing a single lib. that is to say it's surprisingly concise for encompassing such a lot of capabilities in the core language.
Re:What about Perl 6? (Score:2, Informative)
No, Perl 6 is not "out". I can't use it on my production servers, because there's no good implementation yet, even after ten years.
I know there have been a few attempts, but none of them are seriously usable like Perl 5, Python, Ruby, Tcl, or Lua are.
At least when developing Python 3, the Pythonistas built a production-grade implementation. Even if its adoption hasn't been as fast as was initially hoped, at least those of us who do want to use it can actually use it, and we can do so for serious uses. The same can't be said about Perl 6.
Re:What about Perl 6? (Score:5, Informative)
Perl 6 has 140+ different operators! That is absolutely insane. While I support being concise, Perl has far more complexity in the language core than any other language I have ever seen.
Re:Perl - the COBOL of scripting languages (Score:0, Informative)
Can't argue webservers/sites, but the command line?
Please. Python? Really? Really? Useful for some things, perhaps, but talk about overblown. And yeah, sorry, PHP is crap on the command line. (I'd say it's crap on the webserver as well, but that has less to do with the inherent flaws of PHP and more to do with, "LOL I R ROCKSTAR" PHP monkeys. :p)
There are actually worthy competitors to Perl, mind you, but Perl still wins by virtue of being included on systems by default. Rare is the case where you have to actually manually install Perl. Think the only time I've ever had to do that, actually, was with Windows systems. ;)
For me Perl is alive and well. (Score:4, Informative)
Re:The question nobody wants to ask.... (Score:4, Informative)
BEFOREHAND: close door, each window & exit; wait until time.
open spellbook, study, read (scan, select, tell us);
write it, print the hex while each watches,
reverse its length, write again;
kill spiders, pop them, chop, split, kill them.
unlink arms, shift, wait & listen (listening, wait),
sort the flock (then, warn the "goats" & kill the "sheep");
kill them, dump qualms, shift moralities,
values aside, each one;
die sheep! die to reverse the system
you accept (reject, respect);
next step,
kill the next sacrifice, each sacrifice,
wait, redo ritual until "all the spirits are pleased";
do it ("as they say").
do it(*everyone***must***participate***in***forbidden**s*e*x*).
return last victim; package body;
exit crypt (time, times & "half a time") & close it,
select (quickly) & warn your next victim;
AFTERWORDS: tell nobody.
wait, wait until time;
wait until next year, next decade;
sleep, sleep, die yourself,
die at last
That's actually valid Perl (only Perl 3, though - it breaks in later versions). And yes, I'm aware most of you have already seen it.
A more readable changelog (Score:5, Informative)
A more readable changelog, with formatting, hyperlinks etc applied (rather than a raw pod file) can be seen here [cpan.org]
Re:headless camel (Score:3, Informative)
Python 3 is death to Python (Score:5, Informative)
Python 3 is barely different from Python 2
It's different enough to break the language for legacy code.
When you have code by the million lines, it's impossible to have a script that can reliably convert programs like Guido thinks it can. It's not just adding parentheses to print, there are some beastly things, like giving the division operator a different behavior. In Python 2.7, the result of (3 / 2) is 1, in Python 3 it's 1.5. I have absolutely no way to pore through those million lines and checking every division to see which operator should I use, keep the '/' or change it to '//'.
Besides, the changes from Python 2 to 3 are *all* in the direction of making it a more verbose language. I couldn't find any example of code that would be shorter in Python 3 than in 2. That goes against the philosophy of a scripting language, the last thing we need is a new Java.
I had gradually changed from Perl to Python over the years, but this P3k made me reconsider if this was wise. Apparently, there's no good-for-everything language left. So, in the scripting side, where quick results count, I've been considering switching back to Perl. Conciseness is king here, and nothing beats Perl at that.
As for large projects, thank god C is still there, still running K&R style code almost unchanged. Looking back over the years, I find that, for big projects, no language has given me less trouble than C. Once you get it running, it runs forever.