I know perl's not part of the core distribution, but apart from an i386 OK
report I haven't seen any reports from NetBSD platforms on perl-porters.
It's probably slightly better that any build problems get fixed now rather
than when it's packaged. I didn't realize the freeze was this close, but
from Tim's work, I say it would be a good idea if somebody with an alpha
tried it... (it has passed DEC & linux alpha ports, so it should only be
build problems, if anything)

perl 5.005 basically
   represents a merging of the window versions
   has threads & compiler as experimental features
   other things
5.006 will include unicode and other multi-byte character support...


Gurusamy Sarathy <gsar@engin.umich.edu> spake:

In case you're not tired of building these releases for the umpteenth
time, I've put a version of what will be 5.005 at:

   http://www-personal.umich.edu/~gsar/perl5.005-MAYBE.tar.gz

This is not on CPAN, and please do *not* mirror or redistribute.  The -V
banner shows a localpatches entry of "MAYBE - 5.005, but not just yet",
but the version number is at 5.005.

The only things that are not yet in there are the completed pods.  I'm
working on those, and am hoping one or two stragglers will hand in
something, "RSN".  Noon today EST is the ostensible deadline for me to
hand this to ActiveState for them to make the stuff that'll go on the
conference CD, but maybe we can buy an hour or two beyond in the
interests of good documentation.  ActiveState can go ahead with building
their modules using this preview, in case they're not already doing that.

Anyway, for those who will "miss the boat" as they say, there's this
to ponder:

   `Coming, Mr. Frodo! Coming!' called Sam, and flung himself from the
    bank, clutching at the departing boat.  He missed it by a yard.  With
    a cry and a splash he fell face downward into deep swift water.
    Gurgling he went under, and the River closed over his curly head.

                --The Breaking of the Fellowship, LOTR II, J R R Tolkien

Just kidding.