[Pdx-pm] Help release the next version of Perl 5.8!

[Paul Fenwick]

G'day PDX.pm,

<delurk>

Hi!  I don't live in Portland, I live in Australia.  I visited Portland for
OSCON 2008, where I discovered that having an Australian accent made me
extremely popular.  I'm hoping it will do the same here.

</delurk>

Perl pumpking Nicholas Clark is working like crazy to release Perl 5.8.9.
Incorporating over two and a half years of bugfixes and improvements, it
will be the best release of Perl 5.8 ever. Unfortunately, we have a problem;
right now there's no easy way for the average developer to know what's changed.

Every version of Perl ships with a perldelta file, which summarises all the
important changes into a single document for anyone who wants to know what's
new. This document needs to be written before 5.8.9 can ship, and it's a big
task. Luckily, it's also a task that can be distributed, and we need your help.

The work has been split into individual "chunks" of changelog that need to
be summarised. You can volunteer for as little or as much work as you like.
Even if you don't know much about Perl's internals, you can volunteer for a
"light" approach where you summarise easy and obvious changes, like upgraded
modules, or easily-understood bugfixes.

Contributing the perl589delta directly helps with the release of Perl 5.8.9.
However you'll also get a mention in the prestigious Perl authors file,
kudos on ohloh, and enough material to write a "What's new in 5.8.9"
lightning talk that will make you a star at conferences and user-groups.

To get started, join the mailing list[1]. If you're happy to dive into work
right away, and we hope that you are, then follow the instructions in the
README at the bottom of our source control page[2].

Don't worry if you don't think you can handle a whole chunk of changes at
once. Don't worry if you don't know your way around the Perl guts. If you
want to start small, you can use the micro helpers HOWTO which describes how
you can contribute with a minimum of fuss[3].

Even if you're not sure how to help, we'd still love to see you in the
mailing list; there's plenty of things that need doing. With your help, we
can make Perl 5.8.9 a reality!

Many thanks,

	Paul

[1] http://groups.google.com/group/perl589delta
[2] http://github.com/pfenwick/perl589delta/
[3] http://github.com/pfenwick/perl589delta/tree/master/Micro-helpers-HOWTO.txt

-- 
Paul Fenwick <pjf at perltraining.com.au> | http://perltraining.com.au/
Director of Training                   | Ph:  +61 3 9354 6001
Perl Training Australia                | Fax: +61 3 9354 2681