ActivePerl Change Log

For the latest information on ActivePerl, please see:

    http://www.ActiveState.com/ActivePerl/

Build 613 Thursday, March 23, 2000

Bug Fixes and Changes

Bug Fixes and Changes

This build corresponds to the Perl 5.6.0 source code release.
This build incorporates mostly minor bug fixes between 5.6.0 release candidate 2 and the final 5.6.0 source code release. See the perldelta manpage for a detailed summary of changes between 5.005 and 5.6.0.

Bug Fixes and Changes

This build corresponds to the Perl 5.6.0 release candidate 2 sources.
binmode() now supports a second optional argument that can be used to switch a file handle to ``:crlf'' or ``:raw'' mode. (These correspond to the traditional text and binary modes.) See binmode in the perlfunc manpage.
The new open pragma can be used to set the default mode for implicitly opened handles in the current lexical scope. This is useful to set a particular mode for the results of the qx// operator. See the open manpage.
The bundled ActivePerl documentation has been reorganized. Outdated material has either been reworked to reflect the current status, or removed when it was no longer applicable.
Many bugs in the beta releases have been fixed.

Bug Fixes and Changes

This build corresponds to the public Perl 5.6 beta 3 release, otherwise known as v5.5.670.
The Windows version of the installer now supports installing into paths that contain spaces.
Linux and Solaris install packages that allow non-privileged users to install anywhere are supported. The system-specific packaging formats that typically require root privileges continue to be available.
Support for kill(0,$pid) on Windows to test if process exists.
There is a new tutorial on Object Oriented Perl for beginners. See `perlboot'.
The PPM repository has been updated with newer versions of modules for all supported platforms.

Bug Fixes and Changes

This build corresponds to the public Perl 5.6 beta 1 release, otherwise known as v5.5.650.
Several bugs in the Unicode support have been fixed.
Support for Unicode has changed from previous development versions. See perlunicode.pod for details.
There is a new -C command-line switch to request that system calls use the wide-character APIs. This can also be used in the shebang line.
The byte pragma can be used to force byte-semantics on Perl operations. When not used, character semantics apply if the data is Unicode; otherwise, byte semantics are used.

Bug Fixes and Changes

PPM can communicate with the package repository via SOAP. Currently PPM's and SOAP's integration is somewhat limited; however, it serves as proof of concept.

New modules included with the distribution are:

         - SOAP
         - File::CounterFile
         - Font::AFM

Support for Unicode has changed from previous versions. See perlunicode.pod for details.

Bug Fixes and Changes

A few bugs in the fork() emulation have been fixed. perlfork.pod reflects these changes.

Bug Fixes and Changes

NOTE:Build 603 is not binary compatible with earlier builds. If you have compiled your own extensions with earlier builds, you will need to recompile all of them.
Build 603 corresponds to Perl 5.005_62. Additional patches available since 5.005_62 in the public Perl repository have been incorporated.
Preliminary support for fork() is included. See the perlfork.pod document for details about this functionality.
Documentation in fully searchable HTMLHelp format is included.
Many of the included extensions from CPAN have been updated to newer versions.
A large number of minor bugs in the Perl core have been fixed. See the Changes file in the included sources for a detailed list.

Bug Fixes and Changes

Build 602 corresponds to Perl 5.005_60. Additional patches available since 5.005_60 in the public Perl repository have been incorporated.
A number of pre-built extensions from CPAN are included in this release. These may be installed using PPM or VPM (both of which are included).

Bug Fixes and Changes

Build 601 corresponds to Perl 5.005_57. Additional patches available since 5.005_57 in the public Perl repository have been incorporated.
This build features a major reworking of the API exposed by the PERL_OBJECT build option. The result is a well-defined Perl API (restricted to C syntax) that provides very high degree of compatibility for extensions available from CPAN.
Perl for ISAPI, PerlScript, PerlEz and PerlMsg have been modified to use the new PERL_OBJECT API.
Visual Package Manager (VPM) is now available. VPM can be used to install pre-built binaries from a package repository. One such is available at http://www.activestate.com/packages/perl5_6/.

Major Changes

This series is built around development versions of Perl 5.006. Build 600 corresponds to Perl 5.005_57.
Significant changes that have occurred in the 5.006 development track are documented in perldelta.
Build 600 includes additional changes for supporting globalization. All Win32 API calls made by Perl now follow the utf8 mode of the interpreter. Wide versions of the API calls are made when utf8 is in effect. See utf8 for more information on enabling support for Unicode.
use caller provides a way for modules to inherit the utf8 mode of the calling context. See caller for more information.
The 600 series is not binary compatible with builds in the 500 series. Any extensions built using binaries from the ActivePerl 500 series will need to be recompiled. Note especially that this applies to PPDs that may have been built for 500 series builds.

ActivePerl Change Log