=head1 The Perl 6 Internals correction summary for the weeks of 2006-02-13 through 2006-02-28

=head2 Summary updates

Thank you to everyone who took the time to point out that I had
accidently used February 2003 rather than 2006 for the internals 
section.  This is the actual summary for February 2006.

Due to the comments received on short URLs, I have decided to use
the originals, as I also prefer them.  

=head2 Internals (Parrot-Porters)

This mailing list has been previously called perl6-internals. It is now known
as parrot-porters, but the perl6-internals name will remain as an alias for now.

=head3 L<Delayed release|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl6.internals/browse_frm/thread/2bd3817f062bb391/d933f191753ed950#d933f191753ed950>

Leopold Toetsch announced the delay of the next release.  The
German Perl workshop and a hackathon with Audrey Tang were 
responsible.


=head3 L<Bug: PGE - truncating PIR code generated by p6rule|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl6.internals/browse_frm/thread/ab1747c90f421481/9c3626afd31a78ef#9c3626afd31a78ef>

Allison pushed some code and a test which isolates a failing test in
punie so that others could aid in debugging.  Joshua Isom reported
success on two platforms, but noted other problems he encountered,
which Allison recognized as known Parrot::Test bugs.  Some debugging
took place.


=head3 L<Addressing unowned bugs|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl6.internals/browse_frm/thread/c9c18275b496b7e9/5591d2e80a3befcc#5591d2e80a3befcc>

Joshua Hoblitt requested that people with RT privileges spend a few
minutes on the queue attempting to resolve a few bugs and wondered if
RT could be configured to leave bugs marked as 'new' until they are 
owned.


=head3 L<Request for a clean bailout mechanism|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl6.internals/browse_frm/thread/fb225a9efc659093/494794969e869671#494794969e869671>


In December, Joshua Hoblitt created a ticket L<[perl #37930]|http://rt.perl.org/rt3/Ticket/Display.html?id=37930> requesting a 
clean way for a step to signal a failure.  As of February's r11568, 
all configuration steps were modified.



=head3 L<Param count mismatch errors enabled|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl6.internals/browse_frm/thread/68ffbc794c360dcd/74ccb77243eb3c25#74ccb77243eb3c25>


Leopold Toetsch posted that param count mismatches now throw exceptions,
but result/return count mismatches are still not checked.  He included
a list of failing tests from r11570 which were affected by this change.



=head3 L<Better gdb support|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl6.internals/browse_frm/thread/eaf8290b51fec960/201bf1f682306875#201bf1f682306875>


Leopold Toetsch changed the syntax for registers in r11581.



=head3 L<Punie test failures in set_node method on Solaris/SPARC|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl6.internals/browse_frm/thread/a122de6c2bb28a84/d0cbc9de8125b458#d0cbc9de8125b458>

Allison Randal passed on a reported failure on Solaris/SPARC L<[perl #38584]|http://rt.perl.org/rt3/Ticket/Display.html?id=38584>.

In L<another thread|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl6.internals/browse_frm/thread/8a62c2a856f8f082/491e99ef81569e4b#491e99ef81569e4b>, Andy Dougherty looked into the problem and gave his test results.


=head3 L<Trace improvements|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl6.internals/browse_frm/thread/ff41d299917e6ddd/08f39f7b71ca74a1#08f39f7b71ca74a1>


Leopold Toetsch gave a summary of some recent trace improvements.  They
were as follows: trace output runs through a dedicated debug interpreter,
the output has been beautified, and tracing in to a file is faster.



=head3 L<Test failures with 'long long' on i386/linux|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl6.internals/browse_frm/thread/a113a715bc09b680/4c57d4b0c6828741#4c57d4b0c6828741>


Andy Dougherty reported that this failure persists if one uses 64-bit 
opcodes on a 32-bit system.  He was not especially concerned about the
failure as he had explicitly created the situation in order to test
the bug in its original context.



=head3 L<Deprecated PMCs|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl6.internals/browse_frm/thread/ab631602d56488a2/2f7dcf037ea477df#2f7dcf037ea477df>


In January, Leopold Toetsch indicated that FloatvalArray and StringArray
would be removed soon.  As of r11602, they were removed.



=head3 L<Future JIT compiler improvements|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl6.internals/browse_frm/thread/5f2e1982291a0b4f/4948748c64648c97#4948748c64648c97>


Leopold Toetsch related a short list of desired JIT compiler improvements 
from L<[perl #38593]|http://rt.perl.org/rt3/Ticket/Display.html?id=38593>.



=head3 L<Release|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl6.internals/browse_frm/thread/235cae52d499c70a/cfd494f0b5b440ef#cfd494f0b5b440ef>


Leopold Toetsch announced an upcoming release and put a code freeze
on feature changes.

Later he L<started releasing 0.4.2|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl6.internals/browse_frm/thread/bc3eb88cb5379d36/e29c50b5d277c54b#e29c50b5d277c54b> and blocked all checkins.

And finally, the release was L<complete|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl6.internals/browse_frm/thread/6de64d017bf83e37/7acac8a6a6cb43d2#7acac8a6a6cb43d2>.


=head3 L<WRT *BooleanArray|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl6.internals/browse_frm/thread/cb00b0a40be348a9/ad6f95a8d660233f#ad6f95a8d660233f>


Leopold Toetsch commented that the resizeable variant is broken, and had
some comments on what *BooleanArray should support.  Matt Fowles agreed
with most of the *BooleanArray reductions, while Bob Rogers had some
questions.  Bernhard Schmalhofer also spoke up.  After seeing the support
for the methods, Leopold Toetsch decided they should remain.



=head3 L<Configure dependencies fix bug closed|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl6.internals/browse_frm/thread/c226ff6a47f6d425/082405f8b9d507c4#082405f8b9d507c4>


Joshua Hoblitt closed a ticket L<[perl #31138]|http://rt.perl.org/rt3/Ticket/Display.html?id=31138> which was not addressed
and was no longer applicable.



=head3 L<Question on t/pmc/array.t with a negative length to an array|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl6.internals/browse_frm/thread/37b2e243570e880f/6dbc6b6bb4d85b52#6dbc6b6bb4d85b52>


Karl Forner asked a question about list_set_length, which puzzled him
by accepting negative sizes.  He requested a pointer to documentation 
describing the behavior of the routine.



=head3 L<Deprecated --expnetwork in Configure.pl |http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl6.internals/browse_frm/thread/38b3680ddaaafd76/d7dfa4e23138f5cb#d7dfa4e23138f5cb>


In October, Will Coleda noted that C<--expnetwork> from Configure.pl
was an unused option which should probably be removed L<[perl #37388]|http://rt.perl.org/rt3/Ticket/Display.html?id=37388>.
More recently, Joshua Hoblitt requested clarification and Leopold
Toetsch agreed with the removal.



=head3 L<Performance-adding profiling build options|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl6.internals/browse_frm/thread/4ee0df19308da7c3/84fa5334940e9ec1#84fa5334940e9ec1>


Joshua Hoblitt inquired as to whether L<[perl #31156]|http://rt.perl.org/rt3/Ticket/Display.html?id=31156> was worth implementing.
Leopold Toetsch asked how to add CFLAGS from a perl Configure.pl
command, and Joshua replied.



=head3 L<Truncating results of factorial test on Parrot examples page|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl6.internals/browse_frm/thread/965b026dbd247636/93fdbc899b709c12#93fdbc899b709c12>


Back in September 2005, James Ghofulpo asked in L<[perl #31980]|http://rt.perl.org/rt3/Ticket/Display.html?id=31980> if the 
factorial example was meant to truncate results.  Bernhard Schmalhofer 
confirmed that he got incorrect results running the example.  Leopold 
Toetsch noted that most of the examples are outdated.  There was a 
call to fix the factorials, and in February Joshua Hoblitt asked
what had become of the example.  Leopold Toetsch replied that it had
been removed because it was broken.



=head3 L<undef != undef|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl6.internals/browse_frm/thread/be20bf0fff3e446a/bd2cc5870ee293c8#bd2cc5870ee293c8>


As long ago as December 2004, Simon Glover created a ticket L<[perl #33603]|http://rt.perl.org/rt3/Ticket/Display.html?id=33603>
noting that undef != undef.  Leopold Toetsch tried to explain why undefs
have to be distinct currently.  A patch was proposed, but rejected, and
in February Joshua Hoblitt asked for some resolution on the issue.



=head3 L<Ways to help|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl6.internals/browse_frm/thread/0e9a5f28915ba2bb/587e4bee5791d1c8#587e4bee5791d1c8>


Karl Forner, a mailing list subscriber, expressed interest in helping to
develop Perl6 and Parrot and asked what he could do.  He was welcomed
by Bernhard Schmalhofer, who proposed a starting place.  Allison Randal
responded to the suggestion of a FAQ for contributors by asking if Karl
could start by making one.



=head3 L<Questions with building parrot-0.4.1 on Win32|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl6.internals/browse_frm/thread/95e51d0efdbf7cf2/e688d135f7dee508#e688d135f7dee508>


Sisyphus asked if there was an appropriate place for asking questions 
relating to building Parrot, and then asked some questions relating to 
a Win32 build.  Jonathan Worthington confirmed that this was the right 
list and offered suggestions.  Nick Glencross also offered advice.



=head3 L<m4.pm versus M4.pm causes problems on case-insensitive filesystems|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl6.internals/browse_frm/thread/57964674e12dfc10/a0def0bc8f862f74#a0def0bc8f862f74>


Chris Dolan reported L<[perl #38604]|http://rt.perl.org/rt3/Ticket/Display.html?id=38604> that Mac OS X had a problem with these
two files.  Bernhard Schmalhofer indicated that this was due to an svn move, 
which caused problems with svn update on case-insensitive filesystems.



=head3 L<Big steps for Lua|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl6.internals/browse_frm/thread/3d8f0b6c91ad45ba/751746e06a90ef65#751746e06a90ef65>


Francois Perrad reported that Lua on Parrot took some large steps forward.



=head3 L<Linking in docs|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl6.internals/browse_frm/thread/d4b3222d8133f944/44af6bbbadd608ed#44af6bbbadd608ed>


Karl Forner believed that the documentation created by 'make html' were
more useful than the documents on the parrotcode website.  He asked a bit
about the linking process, and Will Coleda answered.



=head3 L<Input/Output encoding filters|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl6.internals/browse_frm/thread/ee5dea0c883fff7f/f909f0ad72f21fe2#f909f0ad72f21fe2>


Steve Gunnell recapped that back in December he had a question about 
UTF-8 I/O.  This led to some thoughts and a proposal on encoding filters.
Leopold Toetsch and others offered comments.



=head3 L<Subversion server upgrades|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl6.internals/browse_frm/thread/7e270d75f2cea64d/5ad5e81df6e29ef2#5ad5e81df6e29ef2>


Robert Spier announced some downtime for the subversion server.



=head3 L<Question on namespaces and classes|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl6.internals/browse_frm/thread/dcb0fbeb9825ed03/575a9e733b172b82#575a9e733b172b82>


Leopold Toetsch asked for some thoughts on his proposals dealing with
namespaces and classes.  Jonathan Worthington and Chip Salzenberg replied.



=head3 L<Namespaces |http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl6.internals/browse_frm/thread/c8db131976158303/4aa57cca180d0ad3#4aa57cca180d0ad3>


Matt Diephouse posted a much-awaited namespace specification draft and
requested comments.  He received plenty.



=head3 L<Announcement: Amber for parrot 0.4.2 (Argument)|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl6.internals/browse_frm/thread/7bd3fa1ed1e302a1/45eb9d949d71b2fb#45eb9d949d71b2fb>


Roger Browne announced this release.



=head3 Applied patches


=over 4

=item * L<Tabs removed in nativecall.pl|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl6.internals/browse_frm/thread/4a2c19c3eb655a8e/afb17c4ee56434c4#afb17c4ee56434c4>

Brad Bowman submitted a patch L<[perl #38476]|http://rt.perl.org/rt3/Ticket/Display.html?id=38476> to normalize indentation
in nativecall.pl.



=item * L<Reduce memory consumption of F<t/pmc/resizeablebooleanarray_17.pasm>|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl6.internals/browse_frm/thread/611c80142c381e32/d8772fc119d9c7b3#d8772fc119d9c7b3>

Andy Dougherty suggested cutting cutting the memory use in half
L<[perl #38577]|http://rt.perl.org/rt3/Ticket/Display.html?id=38577> because his system PANICs from the RAM allocation request.
The patch was applied, but it was noted that there was a
suspected bug in the ResizeableBooleanArray PMC.


=item * L<DETAIL_MEMORY_DEBUG changes|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl6.internals/browse_frm/thread/eec872a277365c95/ba8e3b9afa6ee90d#ba8e3b9afa6ee90d>

Andy Dougherty was not satisfied with DETAIL_MEMORY_DEBUG in src/memory.c
L<[perl #38576]|http://rt.perl.org/rt3/Ticket/Display.html?id=38576> when he tried to use it to debug an out of memory PANIC.
He modified it to use STDERR instead of STDOUT and put in a guard against
calling free(0).  Leopold Toetsch complimented the quality of Andy's
patches and told him to just apply them in the future.


=item * L<Accept return values via a continuation|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl6.internals/browse_frm/thread/6ae7424bda10d7ea/85963bde99de6864#85963bde99de6864>

In January, Bob Rogers proposed that Exception_Handler inherit
from Continuations L<[perl #38348]|http://rt.perl.org/rt3/Ticket/Display.html?id=38348>.  Leopold Toetsch applied the patch in 
r11379.  Discussion continued until mid-February, and there were addition
commits: r11616, and r11612.


=item * L<Param count mismatch errors and tail-calling a continuation|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl6.internals/browse_frm/thread/b361451ee54c0a6a/40b185a7022cf5f4#40b185a7022cf5f4>

Bob Rogers proposed a patch.  Leopold Toetsch clarified how multiple 
get_params work with tailcalls and said the patch was okay, but there 
is no record of it being applied.


=item * L<PIR examples, libraries and tests migrated to new subroutine attributes|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl6.internals/browse_frm/thread/2c558446f3c0c402/33950c1f58cfc564#33950c1f58cfc564>

In L<[perl #38598]|http://rt.perl.org/rt3/Ticket/Display.html?id=38598>, chromatic noted that some modifications were needed to
bring documentation and tests up-to-date.  He applied some patches
(11755, 11756 and 11758).


=back

=head2 Acknowledgments

chromatic recruited me at YAPC::NA 2006, and Jesse Vincent
proposed this task.  Audrey Tang helped me to get started.
She also deserves a belated thank-you for her effort in 
finishing the previous edition, as does Yuval Kogman.

If you appreciate Perl, consider 
L<contributing to the Perl Foundation|http://donate.perlfoundation.org>
to help support the development of Perl.

Send complaints and comments about this summary to Ann Barcomb,
kudra@domaintje.com.

=head2 See also

=over 4

=item * L<Perl Foundation activities|http://blog.perlfoundation.org>

=item * L<Perl 6 Development|http://dev.perl.org/perl6>

=item * L<Planet Perl Six|http://planetsix.perl.org/perl6>

=back
