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MacPerl 5.6.1 Released

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the perly-goodness dept.

pudge (apple.slashdot.org editor and MacPerl Maintainer) writes "MacPerl 5.6.1r1 is the first release of MacPerl in four years. It is now based on perl 5.6.1 -- actually on the latest unreleased 5.6 sources, so MacPerl is the most advanced release of perl ever -- and support for MacPerl is now in the perl core, for both 5.6 and 5.8. MacPerl can also be built entirely with freely available software. And, like its predecessor, it runs on Mac OS X under the Classic environment. Read the announcement, and see macperldelta for details on what's changed."

4 of 122 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Is this relevant? by pudge · · Score: 5, Informative

    I use MacPerl to develop the very site you're posting on ... does that count? :)

    Sure, you can't fork, but that's rarely needed. I do command-line stuff with MacPerl (both via ToolServer in BBEdit and in MPW) often. And I use Mac::Glue to do whatever I might want to do in AppleScript, without AppleScript's performance penalties or horrific syntax. ;-)

    For example, I have here a little script where MacPerl on my Mac OS box talks to my Mac OS X box and asks iTunes on Mac OS X what track is currently playing, and then it drops that information into my clipboard.

    NP: It's Alright For You - The Police (Message In A Box - Disc 1)

  2. Re:WOW!! by Skirwan · · Score: 5, Funny
    Every once in a while, the Mac community gets something first, and they start crowing like I can't believe. Have some self respect, for god's sake.
    We have plenty of self respect. In fact, we have the most advanced self respect ever!

    --
    Damn the Emperor!
  3. Re:Perl + Aqua by hobbs · · Score: 4, Informative

    Apple currently has people working on porting Tk to Aqua (based on Tcl first, which ships default with OS X). Once that is done, whichever languages hook into Tk through Tcl will get native Aqua L&F (i.e. Python, Ruby). Perl still uses a modified Tk 8.0 (pre-unicode days), so I don't know what effort it would take to update Perl/Tk to a modern Tk. I've heard from Nick Ing-Simmons about the possibility a while ago, but he's gone quiet in the interim...

    BTW, Tk does work on OS X natively now, just via X.

  4. I've seen a bunch of posts asking why... by Teancom · · Score: 4, Interesting

    "Why not just port the OSX version to have the Mac:: modules? Why use the classic version at all? What's the point?" Etc, etc, etc. Well guess what, people, *not* *everybody* *uses* *OSX*. My little blueberry ibook would be crushed under the load of Aqua, and it hums along just fine with "classic", "old", "decript", OS9. And I use MacPerl, because I can hack around with it on road trips and write nifty stuff like "count the license plates" to keep my kids entertained. Sheesh, you'd think that there was no such thing as an old macintosh out there....