Subject: Re: perl pkg
To: None <tech-pkg@netbsd.org>
From: Andrew Brown <atatat@atatdot.net>
List: tech-pkg
Date: 08/05/1999 12:14:29
>On the GNU ftp site, it's got:
>
> -r--r--r-- 1 root system 586178 Feb 7 1993 perl-4.036.tar.gz
> -r--r--r-- 1 root system 2581811 Nov 11 1997 perl-5.004_04.tar.gz
> -r--r--r-- 1 root system 3431570 Jul 28 1998 perl-5.005.01.tar.gz
> -r--r--r-- 1 root system 3491732 Sep 28 1998 perl-5.005.02.tar.gz
heh. they're missing perl5.005_03. :)
>Aren't odd perl minor numbers "pre-release" releases? So, 5.004_04
>would be the latest "released" version, and 5.005.02 the latest
>"pre-release" version?
no...you're confusing perl with linux again. :P
in perl parlance, the latest real (stable?) release is _03. the
latest devel (or testing or beta or whatever) release is _60. the
devel releases are always numbered from 50 and up.
as for newness...the devel releases will *always* contain new and
exciting features that might crash. or go away later. perl 5.005 on
the whole contains a number of cool things not found in 5.004.
* zero-width negative lookback assertions
* pseudo function prototyping
* the INIT block, akin to BEGIN and END, but different
* more goofy regular expression magic than i'll ever use
* a perl pseudo-compiler (emits c or binary output)
* a parse tree printer
* even more standard modules
so...depending on your point of view, the new perl might be a good
thing.
--
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