use Perl

Parrot 0.4.14 News

Now, with Seat Belts!

• added makefile targets for Sun lint, BSD lint, and splint
• corrected many errors picked up by these tools
• decorated source code with compiler hints, assertions, and attribute macros
• automated creation of function declarations to prevent common errors
• increased compiler warnings levels
• converted more exceptions to a recoverable form

Languages

• updated Lisp, Lua, Perl 6, tcl, regex, Scheme ("Pheme")
• Perl 6 now fetches selected tests from pugs, and even passes some
• PGE modified to handle {*} action subs for top-down and bottom-up parsers, and to allow grammar subclassing
• HLLCompiler now has better exception, eval, and exit support
• Introduced PCT, a refactor of HLLCompiler and PAST-pm

Design

• PDD15 "Objects"—details added to 'new' and 'getattribute' opcodes
• PDD17 "PMCs"—notes added on instantiation and dynamic extention in PIR

Documentation

• added Parrot-related text from "Perl6 and Parrot Essentials" book, tutorial examples from "Learning PIR" talk, and PDD15 metamodel diagrams

Implementation

• reduced memory footprint when using named registers
• implemented overridding of vtable methods by PDD15 classes
• improved PDD15 support for 'new', 'instantiate', and others
• added makefile targets to ease core and HLL makefile regeneration
• updated parrot dubugger, "pdb", to allow loading of commands from file

Misc

• many bugfixes, enhancements, documentation, and coding standard updates

Thanks to all our contributors for making this possible, and our sponsors for supporting this project.