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Rakudo *

Summary

The Rakudo Star releases includes the Rakudo compiler, modules, Blizkost and documentation.Rakudo is an implementation of the Perl 6 specification for the Parrot virtual machine. The package rakudo-star replace the package rakudo from Fedora 12.

Owners

  • email: <gerd@fedoraproject.org>, <cwickert@fedoraproject.org>, <mmaslano@fedoraproject.org>

Current status

  • Targeted release: Fedora 14
  • Last updated: 2010-11-20
  • Percentage of completion: 100%
    • 2009-08-11: put a Rakudo package with stripped shared objects in Fedora 11 and 12
    • 2010-06-19: Patrick Michaud announced Rakudo * for July 29
    • 2010-07-20: Parrot 2.6.0 "Red-rumped" released (get necessary dependency)
    • 2010-07-23: Rakudo 2010.07 (#31 "Atlanta") released
    • 2010-07-29: the first verion of rakudo-star (2010.07) is released
    • 2010-08-15: build new rakudo packages with new source from rakudo-star release for Fedora 13, 14 and 15
    • 2010-08-17: open review request for rakudo-star; a successful scratch build is done
    • 2010-08-18: Parrot 2.7.0 "Australian King" released
    • 2010-08-26: Rakudo Star 2010.08 released; this is the version that will go in Fedora 14 Beta
    • 2010-09-08: parrot-2.7.0-1.fc14 pushed to stable; Rakudo Star is reviewed; SCM admin request is done
    • 2010-09-09: Rakudo Star 2010.08 is in Fedora 15 and the update stream of Fedora 14
    • 2010-11-02: Fedora 14 come out with Rakudo Star 2010.09 in the Everything repository

Detailed Description

Perl 6 is a major revision to the Perl programming language, which introduces elements of many modern and historical languages. There are currently multiple implementation projects of Perl 6 underway, the most actively developed one is Rakudo, which is based on the Parrot virtual machine.

Rakudo Star holds a series of complete Perl 6 environments for example:

  • Some random libraries
  • Documentation

Changes and improvements that can already be tested with the Atlanta release:

  • Rakudo now properly constructs closures in most instances.
  • Undefined objects can now autovivify into arrays or hashes when subscripted with .[ ] or .{ } .
  • Arrays can now handle infinite ranges.
  • Generic, multi-level Whatever-currying now works, e.g. (1, 1, *+* ... *).
  • The REPL shell now remembers lexical declarations in susbsequent lines.
  • The open() subroutine now returns a Failure instead of throwing a fatal exception.
  • Rakudo now provides $*ARGFILES for reading from files specified on the command line.
  • Added $*PERL, moved %*VM to $*VM.
  • Simple binding operators := and ::= now work.
  • Simple feed operators <== and ==> now work.

Benefit to Fedora

Providing Perl 6 support makes Fedora an attractive platform for developers. Rakudo will enable developers to write new applications or port existing ones. By offering Perl 6 at the current state Fedora once again proves its foundations: Features and First.

Make Fedora fit for Perl 6 Modules.

Scope

  • Package reviews
  • Continuous updates each month

How To Test

  • Test that rakudo builds on the parrot RPMs provided in Fedora.
  • Use the test suite included in Rakudo to verify that it actually works:
    • make test will run a suite of tests, designed to make sure that the Rakudo compiler is basically working and that it's capable of running a simple test harness.
    • make spectest will import relevant portions of the official Perl 6 test suite from the Pugs repository and run all of the tests that are currently known to pass.

User Experience

Rakudo will enable developers to write new applications or port existing ones to Perl 6. Although Perl 6 is still in development and no official release date has been set, the specification is feature complete and mature. Rakudo has released 19 stable releases so far. Both parrot and rakudo do one stable release each month and developers will get them easily without hassle on a regular schedule.

Dependencies

  • Parrot >= 2.7: Parrot 2.7.0 will be released on August 18, will be in Fedora >= 13)
  • Rakudo Star: Review

(Note that the base parrot rpm is required at runtime.)

Contingency Plan

None necessary, revert to previous release behaviour.

Documentation

Release Notes

Fedora comes with Rakudo Perl, an implementation of the Perl 6 specification based on the Parrot virtual machine, which enables developers to write new applications or port existing ones to Perl 6. To install Rakudo *, use the Add/Remove Software tool or run: 

su -c 'yum install rakudo-star'

For information of command line options run: 

man perl6
man rakudo

Comments and Discussion


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