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  13 <big><strong><span class="block">&nbsp;perl583delta - what is new for perl v5.8.3</span></strong></big>
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  17 <p><a name="__index__"></a></p>
  18 <!-- INDEX BEGIN -->
  19
  20 <ul>
  21
  22         <li><a href="#name">NAME</a></li>
  23         <li><a href="#description">DESCRIPTION</a></li>
  24         <li><a href="#incompatible_changes">Incompatible Changes</a></li>
  25         <li><a href="#core_enhancements">Core Enhancements</a></li>
  26         <li><a href="#modules_and_pragmata">Modules and Pragmata</a></li>
  27         <li><a href="#utility_changes">Utility Changes</a></li>
  28         <li><a href="#new_documentation">New Documentation</a></li>
  29         <li><a href="#installation_and_configuration_improvements">Installation and Configuration Improvements</a></li>
  30         <li><a href="#selected_bug_fixes">Selected Bug Fixes</a></li>
  31         <li><a href="#new_or_changed_diagnostics">New or Changed Diagnostics</a></li>
  32         <li><a href="#changed_internals">Changed Internals</a></li>
  33         <li><a href="#configuration_and_building">Configuration and Building</a></li>
  34         <li><a href="#platform_specific_problems">Platform Specific Problems</a></li>
  35         <li><a href="#known_problems">Known Problems</a></li>
  36         <li><a href="#future_directions">Future Directions</a></li>
  37         <li><a href="#obituary">Obituary</a></li>
  38         <li><a href="#reporting_bugs">Reporting Bugs</a></li>
  39         <li><a href="#see_also">SEE ALSO</a></li>
  40 </ul>
  41 <!-- INDEX END -->
  42
  43 <hr />
  44 <p>
  45 </p>
  46 <h1><a name="name">NAME</a></h1>
  47 <p>perl583delta - what is new for perl v5.8.3</p>
  48 <p>
  49 </p>
  50 <hr />
  51 <h1><a name="description">DESCRIPTION</a></h1>
  52 <p>This document describes differences between the 5.8.2 release and
  53 the 5.8.3 release.</p>
  54 <p>If you are upgrading from an earlier release such as 5.6.1, first read
  55 the <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perl58delta.html">the perl58delta manpage</a>, which describes differences between 5.6.0 and
  56 5.8.0, and the <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perl581delta.html">the perl581delta manpage</a> and <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perl582delta.html">the perl582delta manpage</a>, which describe differences
  57 between 5.8.0, 5.8.1 and 5.8.2</p>
  58 <p>
  59 </p>
  60 <hr />
  61 <h1><a name="incompatible_changes">Incompatible Changes</a></h1>
  62 <p>There are no changes incompatible with 5.8.2.</p>
  63 <p>
  64 </p>
  65 <hr />
  66 <h1><a name="core_enhancements">Core Enhancements</a></h1>
  67 <p>A <code>SCALAR</code> method is now available for tied hashes. This is called when
  68 a tied hash is used in scalar context, such as</p>
  69 <pre>
  70     if (%tied_hash) {
  71         ...
  72     }</pre>
  73 <p>The old behaviour was that %tied_hash would return whatever would have been
  74 returned for that hash before the hash was tied (so usually 0). The new
  75 behaviour in the absence of a SCALAR method is to return TRUE if in the
  76 middle of an <code>each</code> iteration, and otherwise call FIRSTKEY to check if the
  77 hash is empty (making sure that a subsequent <code>each</code> will also begin by
  78 calling FIRSTKEY). Please see <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perltie.html#scalar">SCALAR in the perltie manpage</a> for the full details and
  79 caveats.</p>
  80 <p>
  81 </p>
  82 <hr />
  83 <h1><a name="modules_and_pragmata">Modules and Pragmata</a></h1>
  84 <dl>
  85 <dt><strong><a name="item_cgi">CGI</a></strong>
  86
  87 <dt><strong><a name="item_cwd">Cwd</a></strong>
  88
  89 <dt><strong><a name="item_digest">Digest</a></strong>
  90
  91 <dt><strong><a name="item_digest_3a_3amd5">Digest::MD5</a></strong>
  92
  93 <dt><strong><a name="item_encode">Encode</a></strong>
  94
  95 <dt><strong><a name="item_file_3a_3aspec">File::Spec</a></strong>
  96
  97 <dt><strong><a name="item_findbin">FindBin</a></strong>
  98
  99 <dd>
 100 <p>A function <code>again</code> is provided to resolve problems where modules in different
 101 directories wish to use FindBin.</p>
 102 </dd>
 103 </li>
 104 <dt><strong><a name="item_list_3a_3autil">List::Util</a></strong>
 105
 106 <dd>
 107 <p>You can now weaken references to read only values.</p>
 108 </dd>
 109 </li>
 110 <dt><strong><a name="item_math_3a_3abigint">Math::BigInt</a></strong>
 111
 112 <dt><strong><a name="item_podparser">PodParser</a></strong>
 113
 114 <dt><strong><a name="item_pod_3a_3aperldoc">Pod::Perldoc</a></strong>
 115
 116 <dt><strong><a name="item_posix">POSIX</a></strong>
 117
 118 <dt><strong><a name="item_unicode_3a_3acollate">Unicode::Collate</a></strong>
 119
 120 <dt><strong><a name="item_unicode_3a_3anormalize">Unicode::Normalize</a></strong>
 121
 122 <dt><strong><a name="item_test_3a_3aharness">Test::Harness</a></strong>
 123
 124 <dt><strong><a name="item_threads_3a_3ashared">threads::shared</a></strong>
 125
 126 <dd>
 127 <p><code>cond_wait</code> has a new two argument form. <code>cond_timedwait</code> has been added.</p>
 128 </dd>
 129 </li>
 130 </dl>
 131 <p>
 132 </p>
 133 <hr />
 134 <h1><a name="utility_changes">Utility Changes</a></h1>
 135 <p><code>find2perl</code> now assumes <code>-print</code> as a default action. Previously, it
 136 needed to be specified explicitly.</p>
 137 <p>A new utility, <code>prove</code>, makes it easy to run an individual regression test
 138 at the command line. <code>prove</code> is part of Test::Harness, which users of earlier
 139 Perl versions can install from CPAN.</p>
 140 <p>
 141 </p>
 142 <hr />
 143 <h1><a name="new_documentation">New Documentation</a></h1>
 144 <p>The documentation has been revised in places to produce more standard manpages.</p>
 145 <p>The documentation for the special code blocks (BEGIN, CHECK, INIT, END)
 146 has been improved.</p>
 147 <p>
 148 </p>
 149 <hr />
 150 <h1><a name="installation_and_configuration_improvements">Installation and Configuration Improvements</a></h1>
 151 <p>Perl now builds on OpenVMS I64</p>
 152 <p>
 153 </p>
 154 <hr />
 155 <h1><a name="selected_bug_fixes">Selected Bug Fixes</a></h1>
 156 <p>Using <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlvar.html#item_substr"><code>substr()</code></a> on a UTF8 string could cause subsequent accesses on that
 157 string to return garbage. This was due to incorrect UTF8 offsets being
 158 cached, and is now fixed.</p>
 159 <p><code>join()</code> could return garbage when the same <code>join()</code> statement was used to
 160 process 8 bit data having earlier processed UTF8 data, due to the flags
 161 on that statement's temporary workspace not being reset correctly. This
 162 is now fixed.</p>
 163 <p><a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlvar.html#item__a"><code>$a .. $b</code></a> will now work as expected when either $a or $b is <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlfunc.html#item_undef"><code>undef</code></a></p>
 164 <p>Using Unicode keys with tied hashes should now work correctly.</p>
 165 <p>Reading $^E now preserves $!. Previously, the C code implementing $^E
 166 did not preserve <code>errno</code>, so reading $^E could cause <code>errno</code> and therefore
 167 <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlvar.html#item___"><code>$!</code></a> to change unexpectedly.</p>
 168 <p>Reentrant functions will (once more) work with C++. 5.8.2 introduced a bugfix
 169 which accidentally broke the compilation of Perl extensions written in C++</p>
 170 <p>
 171 </p>
 172 <hr />
 173 <h1><a name="new_or_changed_diagnostics">New or Changed Diagnostics</a></h1>
 174 <p>The fatal error ``DESTROY created new reference to dead object'' is now
 175 documented in <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perldiag.html">the perldiag manpage</a>.</p>
 176 <p>
 177 </p>
 178 <hr />
 179 <h1><a name="changed_internals">Changed Internals</a></h1>
 180 <p>The hash code has been refactored to reduce source duplication. The
 181 external interface is unchanged, and aside from the bug fixes described
 182 above, there should be no change in behaviour.</p>
 183 <p><code>hv_clear_placeholders</code> is now part of the perl API</p>
 184 <p>Some C macros have been tidied. In particular macros which create temporary
 185 local variables now name these variables more defensively, which should
 186 avoid bugs where names clash.</p>
 187 <p>&lt;signal.h&gt; is now always included.</p>
 188 <p>
 189 </p>
 190 <hr />
 191 <h1><a name="configuration_and_building">Configuration and Building</a></h1>
 192 <p><code>Configure</code> now invokes callbacks regardless of the value of the variable
 193 they are called for. Previously callbacks were only invoked in the
 194 <code>case $variable $define)</code> branch. This change should only affect platform
 195 maintainers writing configuration hints files.</p>
 196 <p>
 197 </p>
 198 <hr />
 199 <h1><a name="platform_specific_problems">Platform Specific Problems</a></h1>
 200 <p>The regression test ext/threads/shared/t/wait.t fails on early RedHat 9
 201 and HP-UX 10.20 due to bugs in their threading implementations.
 202 RedHat users should see <a href="https://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHBA-2003-136.html">https://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHBA-2003-136.html</a>
 203 and consider upgrading their glibc.</p>
 204 <p>
 205 </p>
 206 <hr />
 207 <h1><a name="known_problems">Known Problems</a></h1>
 208 <p>Detached threads aren't supported on Windows yet, as they may lead to
 209 memory access violation problems.</p>
 210 <p>There is a known race condition opening scripts in <code>suidperl</code>. <code>suidperl</code>
 211 is neither built nor installed by default, and has been deprecated since
 212 perl 5.8.0. You are advised to replace use of suidperl with tools such
 213 as sudo ( <a href="http://www.courtesan.com/sudo/">http://www.courtesan.com/sudo/</a> )</p>
 214 <p>We have a backlog of unresolved bugs. Dealing with bugs and bug reports
 215 is unglamorous work; not something ideally suited to volunteer labour,
 216 but that is all that we have.</p>
 217 <p>The perl5 development team are implementing changes to help address this
 218 problem, which should go live in early 2004.</p>
 219 <p>
 220 </p>
 221 <hr />
 222 <h1><a name="future_directions">Future Directions</a></h1>
 223 <p>Code freeze for the next maintenance release (5.8.4) is on March 31st 2004,
 224 with release expected by mid April. Similarly 5.8.5's freeze will be at
 225 the end of June, with release by mid July.</p>
 226 <p>
 227 </p>
 228 <hr />
 229 <h1><a name="obituary">Obituary</a></h1>
 230 <p>Iain 'Spoon' Truskett, Perl hacker, author of <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlreref.html">the perlreref manpage</a> and
 231 contributor to CPAN, died suddenly on 29th December 2003, aged 24.
 232 He will be missed.</p>
 233 <p>
 234 </p>
 235 <hr />
 236 <h1><a name="reporting_bugs">Reporting Bugs</a></h1>
 237 <p>If you find what you think is a bug, you might check the articles
 238 recently posted to the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup and the perl
 239 bug database at <a href="http://bugs.perl.org.">http://bugs.perl.org.</a>  There may also be
 240 information at <a href="http://www.perl.org,">http://www.perl.org,</a> the Perl Home Page.</p>
 241 <p>If you believe you have an unreported bug, please run the <strong>perlbug</strong>
 242 program included with your release.  Be sure to trim your bug down
 243 to a tiny but sufficient test case.  Your bug report, along with the
 244 output of <code>perl -V</code>, will be sent off to <a href="mailto:perlbug@perl.org">perlbug@perl.org</a> to be
 245 analysed by the Perl porting team.  You can browse and search
 246 the Perl 5 bugs at <a href="http://bugs.perl.org/">http://bugs.perl.org/</a></p>
 247 <p>
 248 </p>
 249 <hr />
 250 <h1><a name="see_also">SEE ALSO</a></h1>
 251 <p>The <em>Changes</em> file for exhaustive details on what changed.</p>
 252 <p>The <em>INSTALL</em> file for how to build Perl.</p>
 253 <p>The <em>README</em> file for general stuff.</p>
 254 <p>The <em>Artistic</em> and <em>Copying</em> files for copyright information.</p>
 255 <table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3">
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 257 <big><strong><span class="block">&nbsp;perl583delta - what is new for perl v5.8.3</span></strong></big>
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