The Perl Journal December, 2003
Perl 5.8.2 has been finalized, after two release candidates; you can get it from CPAN under /authors/id/N/NW/NWCLARK. In addition to restoring binary compatibility with pre-5.8.1 modules, this release solves syntax errors involving unrecognized filetest operators, and fixes a problem with initializing and destroying the Perl interpreter more than once in a single process. However, build problems have been reported on some UNIX systems. A maintenance tarball is scheduled for release December 31.
In releated news, PerlCE 5.8.2 is out for those who want to run Perl on Windows CE-based devices. The project web site is http:// perlce.sourceforge.net/.
An update was also issued to the Perl 5.6 branch: According to the documentation, "the 5.6.2 release is aimed at providing only a minimal update to perl 5.6.1, which wasn't being compatible with some of the newest compilers (most notably gcc 3.x), libraries, and operating systems that have appeared since 5.6.1 was released." Perl 5.6.3 is in the works with many more bug fixes and module upgrades.
Lastly, Leopold Toetsch announced the 0.0.13 release of Parrot: "Proposed originally as a fun release it has a remarkable list of improvements, additions, and fixes. While some milestones have not really been reached, there have been many steps towards getting these done." You can download it from CPAN under /authors/id/L/LT/LTOETSCH/.
David Ascher has succeeded Dick Hardt as ActiveState's CTO, and also gained the title of "Director, Tools and Languages" for Sophos, ActiveState's new parent company. Hardt, the founder and one-time CEO of ActiveState, has left the company in order to found a new start-up in the identity management field.
Ascher's duties will be broader than those of a typical CTO. While Steve Munford remains President of ActiveState, Munford has also become Global Vice President of Messaging at Sophos. His mandate will be to take the company's PureMessage anti-spam product worldwide, so the job of overseeing day-to-day operations at ActiveState will fall to Ascher.
Ascher has a strong background in Python. He's the director of the Python Software Foundation and a coauthor of two O'Reilly books on Python. Additionally, he has helped develop and document the Numeric and PyOpenGL Python extensions. He first joined ActiveState nearly four years ago when the company launched its ActivePython development effort. But though ActiveState may be run by a Python enthusiast, executives say the company remains committed to Perl. "Most of our open-source developers are Perl developers," says ActiveState spokeswoman Lori Pike. "For sure, we have a huge focus on Perl."
Sterling Hughes, coauthor of The PHP Developer's Cookbook, and PHP Group member Thies C. Arntzen have started a side-project to get PHP running on Parrot. Arntzen writes on his blog, "We have already written a new scanner and parser that understands most of the current PHP-syntax. At php{con west we managed to write the first bits of the actual code-generator for it and we are now able to run some (limited, but real-life) PHP code." The next step is to choose a name for the project: The rather obvious "Pharrot" has already been rejected. A SourceForge page will be forthcoming as soon as a name is chosen; meanwhile, Hughes and Arntzen have a posted a presentation on the project at http://www.edwardbear.org/pap.pdf.
The Lightweight Languages 2003 conference was held at MIT in the beginning of November. Webcasts of the presentations are archived at http://ll3.ai.mit.edu/; at the end of Session 2 you can catch Dan Sugalski talking about boundaries. Other topics included "Lisp on Lego MindStorms" and "Embedding an Interpreted Language Using Higher-Order Functions and Types."
The Perl community is surely united in its sympathy and best wishes for Larry Wall, who posted to perl.perl6.language to say "Sorry I haven't be more communicative lately, but I spent most of the last two months in the hospital, where there's no e-mail access. Had a benign tumor chopped out of my stomach, and there were complications. Full recovery is expected, any month now. But for the time being I'm tied to an IV pole pumping calories into my intestines until I learn to eat again. So please don't expect me to come to any conferences any time soon..." Here's to better food, a speedy recovery, and holidays at home.