Perl 5.16.0 Released

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Posted by samzenpus on Monday May 21, 2012 @08:47AM from the check-it-out dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Perl 5.16.0 is now available with plenty of improvements all around. You can view a summary and all the change details here. With Perl on an annual release schedule, and projects like Mojolicious, Dancer, perlbrew, Plack, and Moose continuing to gain in popularity, are we in the middle of a Perl renaissance?"

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Re:No by X.25 · 2012-05-21 09:10 · Score: 5, Insightful

Perl is not coming back. Get over it and learn something else.
It never went anywhere, so why would it need to come back?
Like Perl, but Python dominates by Anonymous Coward · 2012-05-21 09:18 · Score: 2, Insightful

.. for prototyping and scripting. I'm a non-coder working for a software house with highly experienced coders. I taught myself Perl and C. But none of these guys will use Perl. For anything. All they will use for scripting and prototyping is *Python*. They make the usual cliche jokes about Perl being unreadable etc. I'm really beginning to think that I wasted my time learning Perl.
1. Re:Like Perl, but Python dominates by ThePhilips · 2012-05-21 10:11 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  All they will use for scripting and prototyping is *Python*.
  
  NOT using Perl for prototyping IME is a good thing.
  Many of my program and libraries begin their life as proof-of-concept in Perl. And the problem is that from Perl implementation it is pretty much never possible to devise how much time it would take to implement C/C++/etc equivalent.
  I had totally bad cases like where I have spent 2 weeks writing a library in C++ for which Perl's equivalent took me only 30 minutes. As a proof-of-concept, Perl implementation could be a quick hack - but C++ has to be a production quality. With the vast utility of Perl many corner cases seem trivial and work easily without performance regressions - while in C/C++ one ends up feeling like reimplementing the wheel for every one of them.
  Perl is BAD for prototyping for C and C-like languages IMO. The difference between the languages and the libraries is way too great.
  P.S. I'm not sure how better it is in Python. It should be better: the utility of the Python is much more limited compared to the Perl.
  
  --
  All hope abandon ye who enter here.
Parallax by hessian · 2012-05-21 09:24 · Score: 5, Insightful

We're seeing Perl as having moved because we have moved. Perl has kept doing what it has always done at a high level of excellence.
The market shifted. First, many Perl programmers shifted to PHP once the net decided security and economy of processing power were not goals on the table. Second, a lot of newer programmers are reliant on frameworks and other pre-built systems and learned the languages that go with those.
However, among those who've just kept making things work for the past 15 years, Perl remains alive and well. It is still the fastest way to get the widest range of tasks done. And if you don't code like an obscurantist maniac, it's easy to maintain.
It may look to us like Perl went away, but what really happened was an infusion of other people and trends. Now that the free money from a dot-com booming economy has gone away, Perl is shining through once again as the reliable and powerful option that it is.

--
Futurist Traditionalism
Re:Perl's strength by Anonymous Coward · 2012-05-21 09:57 · Score: 2, Insightful

In other words, Python is just like Perl, only Python fans are deluded into thinking the Python way of doing things is the only viable way.
Fixt.
Re:Perl renaissance? by kwoff · 2012-05-21 10:06 · Score: 5, Insightful

Have you maintained any (large) body of code that isn't a nightmare?
Re:Perl's strength by doti · 2012-05-21 10:08 · Score: 2, Insightful

sorry, I tried many times to copy/past these so called python code, and then never work.
yes, relying on white space is a stupid idea.

--
factor 966971: 966971
Bunch of stuck up nannies by cheekyboy · 2012-05-21 11:43 · Score: 5, Insightful

If they write their own code, its unreadable?
Fire them.
Its easy to write code in perl that looks like C and is readable, and still fast. (Often faster than java btw)
Yes, using shortcuts and lots of login in one line is cute, but its horrible to read, so DONT do it.

--
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
Awesome (2nd try) by mattr · 2012-05-21 19:42 · Score: 3, Insightful

From the link:

According to the developers there are 590,000 lines of changes across 2,500 files from 139 authors in Perl5.16.0. Perl5.16.1 should be published on 20 June, addressing any significant bugs found in the 5.16.0 release. Work will then begin on the 5.17 development branch which should arrive as Perl5.18 in May next year.

Sounds like a HUGE amount of development! I had no idea of the scale of the effort and love and use Perl myself.
Hard to imagine how anyone intelligent could ever say Perl is not timely with this kind of mass coordination going on. (Not to mention Slashdot being written in Perl IIRC...)
Personally I am excited about the Modern Perl book (I seem to have self-censored myself into using older versions).
I have used and liked Catalyst but have also imagined even easier ways to build systems with it and say Moose.
So I am going to have a lot of fun trying out Dancer and PSGI/Plack.