Rakudo

This is a development, running and compiling environment for the Perl 6 programming language.

Uses the Parrot VM to compile the code.

What is new in this release:

• Allow Buf.AT-POS to return an l-value.
• Implement method ^foo($) { ... } syntax.
• Implemented PairMap (the simple case only, for now).
• Implemented .antipairs (pairs with value => key).
• Implemented pairup for creating pairs from lists.
• Implemented LEXICAL, OUTERS and CALLERS pseudo-packages
• Add array[T], usable for native int/num (MoarVM only for now)
• Other native improvements, e.g. my int $a; $a++
• Implement IO::Path.resolve on r-m/POSIX

What is new in version 2015.06:

• Allow Buf.AT-POS to return an l-value.
• Implement method ^foo($) { ... } syntax.
• Implemented PairMap (the simple case only, for now).
• Implemented .antipairs (pairs with value => key).
• Implemented pairup for creating pairs from lists.
• Implemented LEXICAL, OUTERS and CALLERS pseudo-packages
• Add array[T], usable for native int/num (MoarVM only for now)
• Other native improvements, e.g. my int $a; $a++
• Implement IO::Path.resolve on r-m/POSIX

What is new in version 2015.03:

• Allow Buf.AT-POS to return an l-value.
• Implement method ^foo($) { ... } syntax.
• Implemented PairMap (the simple case only, for now).
• Implemented .antipairs (pairs with value => key).
• Implemented pairup for creating pairs from lists.
• Implemented LEXICAL, OUTERS and CALLERS pseudo-packages
• Add array[T], usable for native int/num (MoarVM only for now)
• Other native improvements, e.g. my int $a; $a++
• Implement IO::Path.resolve on r-m/POSIX

What is new in version 2015.01:

• Many improvements to Java interop for the JVM backend
• New simple way of creating an object hash: :{}
• Substitution now supports assignment meta-op, e.g. s[\d+] += 2
• Many memory and CPU optimizations
• Supply.for deprecated in favour of Supply.from-list

What is new in version 2014.08:

• Many optimizations in both rakudo and the underlying VMs.
• If the LOLLY envar is set, have (;;), [;;], etc., turn into LoLs. Otherwise, parsefail
• Added SEQ(a; b) to emulate the old behavior of (a; b)
• Make &infix:<xx> many times faster
• Fixed multi-dimensional slice assignment
• Assigning a single itemized hash to a hash is now DEPRECATED (my %h = {...})
• subbuf-rw specced and implemented
• The tr/// operator is implemented and has the proper return value
• Improved string handling for MoarVM backend
• All backends now allow C pointer arithmetic and casting of pointers to Perl 6 types (this functionality is exposed by NativeCall)
• Fixed ‘fail' so it also prints a backtrace
• IO::Socket::Async now also works on JVM
• Added or updated many Supply methods: act, batch, categorize, Channel, classify, delay, elems, flat, grab, last, live, max, min, minmax, merge, migrate, Promise, reduce, reverse, rotor, sort, squish, stable, start, uniq, wait, zip
• Added IO::Notification.watch_path / IO::Path::watch which return a Supply of file system changes

What is new in version 2014.04:

• NativeCall passes all its tests on all backends
• S17 (concurrency) now in MoarVM (except timing related features)
• Winner { more @channels { ... } } now works
• Implemented univals(), .unival and .univals (on MoarVM)
• Added .minpairs/.maxpairs on (Set|Bag|Mix)Hash
• Naive implementation of "is cached" trait on Routines

What is new in version 2014.03:

• "make" no longer itemizes its arguments.
• for-loops at the statementlist level are now sunk by default.
• Better parsing of unspaces and formatting codes inside Pod blocks.
• Fix for for-loops to be properly lazy
• Numerous Pod parsing and formatting improvements
• @ as shortcut for @$, % as shortcut for %$
• List infix reductions no longer flatten
• Numerous compiler suggestion improvements

What is new in version 2014.01:

• The eval sub and method are now spelled EVAL
• Numeric.narrow to coerce to narrowest type possible
• Can now supply blocks with multiple arguments as sequence endpoints
• Method calls and hash/list access on Nil give Nil

What is new in version 2013.12:

• The Whatever Star (*) now works inside chain operators like comparisons.
• Private attributes from roles are now visible in the classes they apply to.
• Memory and speed improvements for ListIter and List.combinations, respectively.
• Improvements to the execution of regexes.

What is new in version 2013.11:

• Order::Increase/Decrease are deprecated. Please use Order::Less/More.
• Leading whitespace is ignored for :sigspace
• Better null pattern detection in regexes
• improved run()/shell(), these return Proc::Status-objects now
• The "gethostname" function implemented

What is new in version 2013.10:

• postcircumfix {} and [] are now implemented as multi subs rather than multi methods.
• Add support for "is DEPRECATED", making it easy for early adopters to stay current.
• Track multiple spec changes for various container classes.
• Greatly reduce object creation during Regex parsing.
• Various portability fixes.
• qx// and run() now auto-quote correctly.
• Allow #`[...]-style comments in regexes.

What is new in version 2013.09:

• Candidate argument to bless removed (per spec change).
• @a.VAR.name and %h.VAR.name implemented.
• The $var.++ and $var.() syntaxes work.
• Basics of tr/// implemented.

What is new in version 2013.08:

• Assigning Nil restores the default value
• Buf is now a role, and Buf objects are immutable.
• printf now correctly handles big integers
• Fixed handling of indented heredocs
• dir() is now lazy

What is new in version 2013.05:

• Autothread "none" and "all" junctions before "any" and "one"
• Helpful error if you write "else if"/"elif" instead of "elsif"
• Throw exception if a Range is used as a Range endpoint
• Corrected argument order in IO.seek
• Wrap low level VM objects in ForeignCode, allowing perl6 OO calls on them
• For loops are eager again
• Added link and symlink to IO
• Added Capture.Bool()
• Improvements to DUMP()
• Various optimizations in the optimizer and the runtime
• smartmatch against list now supports Whatever wildcards
• IO::Spec, a port of Perl 5's File::Spec
• Regex special characters can be used as delimiters
• Allow slice with :exists adverb on hashes
• Added 125 extra opening/closing bracket-pairs

What is new in version 2013.02:

• Compile-time optimization of some cases of junctions in boolean context
• IO::Socket.get now works again with non-ASCII characters
• constant folding for routines marked as ‘is pure'
• natively typed variables and better error reporting in the REPL
• speed up eqv-comparison of Bufs

What is new in version 2013.01:

• $obj.Some::Role::meth() now passes the correct $obj
• Try/CATCH now returns Nil when the CATCH is triggered, rather than the exception; this brings it in line with try without a CATCH
• whatever-star cases of splice now implemented
• Can now import multis with the same name from different modules, provided all dispatchers are onlystar

What is new in version 2012.12:

• Parse errors are much improved, and follow STD, the standard parser,
• much more closely; they are more accurate and more information is given
• Rakudo now keeps parsing after some less serious errors
• Better errors for various parse failures
• The junction autothreader is now an order of magnitude faster
• Texas (ASCII) versions of the Set and Bag operators implemented
• Nested Pairs now give correct .perl output

What is new in version 2012.11:

• Implemented precedence related traits (equiv, looser, tighter, assoc)
• Perl 6 grammar NFAs are pre-computed, saving some work on each invocation; this shaved around 10% off the time needed to run the spectests
• regexes and quotes have better support for user-selected delimiters
• FIRST/NEXT/LAST can now be used in all types of loop (previously limited to for)

What is new in version 2012.10:

• The method case of the handles trait
• The <-> lambda, which defaults parameters to rw
• The :dba modifier in regexes
• The radix form :60[24, 59, 59]
• Improved coverage of Perl 5 regexes when the P5 modifier is used
• Correct parsing of nested quote delimiters
• Attributes in scope are now visible inside of an eval

What is new in version 2012.09:

• Basic macro support!
• Support for Perl 5 (m:P5/.../) regex syntax!
• Indirect type names in routine and type declarations are supported.
• We support the "is export" trait on constant declarations.
• The "is hidden" and base traits are supported.
• Str.wordcase, is-prime, and expmod are implemented.
• Compilation is slightly faster than before.

What is new in version 2012.08:

• Variables prefixed by | or \ in signatures are now sigilless, per updates to the Perl 6 specification.
• Circularities in module loading are now detected.
• An improved inliner, allowing a wider range of routines to be inlined.
• Str.bytes and lcfirst have been removed. The tclc builtin has been added.
• ‘abs' is now a normal subroutine instead of a prefix operator.
• IO::File and IO::Dir have been removed.

What is new in version 2012.07:

• Built-in metaobjects (e.g. Metamodel::ClassHOW) now inherit from Any
• &open now supports the :enc/:encoding option
• Anonymous subset types (e.g., ‘subset :: of Int where { $_ > 0 }')
• Rakudo Star now ships with the Template::Mojo module

What is new in version 2012.06:

• Transitive longest-token matching in protoregexes
• Longest token matching for alternations
• Enhanced list and .map handling, including laziness fixes and performance improvements
• Can use an argument list with require
• Compile time errors in loaded modules now show a module loading backtrace
• String to number conversion now recognizes radix notation
• The &push and &unshift functions can now autovivify

What is new in version 2012.05:

• Rakudo now also includes the lib.pm module.

What is new in version 2012.04:

• Much improved startup time
• Much more robust module precompilation
• Autovivification for arrays and hashes is implemented again
• Many phasers like PRE, POST and REDO are now implemented
• Improved support for calling C functions and modelling structs and arrays
• via NativeCall.pm6
• Now includes modules URI, LWP::Simple, jsonrpc and Bailador (a Perl 6 port
• of Dancer)

What is new in version 2012.02:

• The FatRat type is implemented, and Rat arithmetic now properly defaults to Num if the denominator is too big
• Object hashes are implemented, and can be declared with the syntax my %h{Any} (for a hash with keys of type Any)
• The <Some::Grammar::rulename> syntax is now implemented in regexes; <foo> can also be used to call predeclared lexical rules
• The Int($x) coercion syntax is implemented
• &rename and © are now implemented
• Improvements to the reduction meta-operator (order of magnitude faster, some parsing issues fixed)
• The <prior> regex built-in is now available, and matches whatever the last successful match matched
• A $match.make(...) method is available to set the AST for a match object not stored in the $/ variable
• Improved backtraces

What is new in version 2012.01:

• Greatly improved performance in many areas. For some scripts, this release offers an order of magnitude performance improvement.
• POD6 support, including the $=POD variable to make the POD available at runtime and a -doc option to get at the POD
• The Int type now has big integer semantics
• Initial work on native types, which can be used to write much more efficient code
• LTM-driven protoregexes
• Meta-programming support, including custom meta-classes, overriding method dispatch and much more
• Exception handling is much closer to the specification, and thus much more useful
• Better package handling, including true separate compilation, lexical packages and better nested package handling
• An optimizer, which improves generated code as well as catching a range of issues at compile-time that previously made it to runtime
• Backslash sequences in character classes
• Stubbed methods from roles are now required, providing interface style functionality

What is new in version 2011.04:

• Modules MiniDBI, form, HTTP::Daemon, Yaml and Module::Tools are removed in this release.
• New modules Pies (including panda, the module installer) and HTTP::Server::Simple have been added.
• New implementation of IO::Socket::INET, with basic IPv6 support
• -p and -n command-line options are now available
• Many new IO improvements, including stat-related methods
• New -ll-backtrace command-line switch for printing PIR level stack traces
• Preliminary implementation of Infix ‘orelse'
• Added Str.indent
• Bugfixes to negation meta operator
• Support for complex conjugation

Requirements:

• C compiler
• Perl 5.8 or higher
• C library
• Parrot