[San-Diego-pm] Perl 5.24

Bob Kleemann rkleeman at energoncube.net
Wed May 18 15:59:43 PDT 2016


Postfix dereferencing ( $array_ref->@* ) looks like it could be helpful
sugar, but I'm not sure it's really going to solve a lot of problems,
though it might, since they removed the auto-dereferencing in many internal
functions ( keys $hash_ref isn't allowed, it's back to keys %$hash_ref or
the new keys $hash_ref->%* ).  Time will definitely tell on that one.

I'll agree that non-destructive substitution (s///r) is definitely the most
convenient feature they've added in recent memory.

I wish they would figure out smartmatch, so that it moves out of
experimental.  I've found when(){} really helpful for undef, strings,
numbers, and regexes (areas where it's not confusing what is going on).  I
can see how arrays, hashes, functions, and several other types could be
tough to figure out, so make those throw up the warning about experimental
features and let the easy ones work.

On Wed, May 18, 2016 at 7:50 AM, Christopher Grau <chris.grau at gmail.com>
wrote:

> On Mon, May 16, 2016 at 3:07 PM, Bob Kleemann <rkleeman at energoncube.net>
> wrote:
> > I also wanted everyone to be aware that Perl 5.24 has been released.  As
> > with all versions of Perl, there are numerous fixes, changes,
> improvements,
> > all of which you can see in the perldelta file:
> > https://metacpan.org/pod/distribution/perl/pod/perldelta.pod.  Are
> there any
> > changes that you like or dislike?  Is there anything that you want more
> > information about?
>
> While I've installed 5.24.0 under plenv and am using it for my own
> programs, I've not spent any time reviewing the perldelta document.
> Nor do we yet have it installed for use at my day job.
>
> The last new feature I've really taken advantage of is non-destructive
> substitution (s///r), which was introduced way back in 5.14. It
> simplifies all the long map pipelines I'm so fond of writing.
>
> Postfix dereferencing maturing from its experimental status seems to
> be the feature I've heard the most excitement about. It looks like a
> nice feature for making my code easier to read, but I can't say I've
> used it yet.
>
> Looking over perldelta, I don't see anything that jumps out at me.
> It's nice to see the continuing improvements, though. I've certainly
> been pleased since Perl gained a regular release schedule. It feels
> very mature as a project and it gives me something to reference when
> those who may be less informed ask why I still consider a "dead
> language" my strongest.
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