rakudo/rakudo 2020.05

on GitHub

On behalf of the Rakudo development team, I’m very happy to announce the
May 2020 release of Rakudo #135. Rakudo is an implementation of
the Raku¹ language.

The source tarball for this release is available from
https://rakudo.org/files/rakudo.
Pre-compiled archives will be available shortly.

New in 2020.05:

• Fixes:
  • Decontainerize attribute default values [d71761e]
  • Fix Cool catchers for some Str methods
    [a91d7d7][63a7265][af8788b]
  • Update some internal documentation to use Raku name [f2cc20c]
  • Add Cool.contains(Regex) candidates [c3c1e8c]
  • Make format of all QuantHash's classes .gist uniform [cf01f7a]
  • Method objects that don't have *%_ in their signature, .gist ok [ac5f353]
  • Fix DateTime default stringification when the second is 0 [95de785]
  • Make Blob/Buf.list non-lazy so they can be used in hypers [6d146b5][291aa58]
  • Remove unnecessary parentheses from Pair.raku [35a827a]
  • IO::CatHandle.slurp did not accept :bin parameter [42c4c3f]
  • Fixed some cases where IO::Handle.slurp was used without :close [efab398]
  • run routine with out named parameter being a Handle and merge flag
    enabled now writes both stdout and stderr to the handle [1f83879]
  • A single whenever react based on a signal is now serialized by default [8aa25bf]
  • &cmp-ok subroutine of Test module now works with objects without support for methods [fc0f78d]
  • Ensure meta-ops respect user-defined chain ops [ac012f1]
  • Fix exception when mixing in roles that use is built at runtime [4c026ab]
  • Fix inconsistent match result when using a code block in a regex [1e0474d]
  • Fix error message related to nextcallee subroutine [136087e]
  • Fix regression in sequence operator [0a6456a]
  • Fix reflection for . twigilled parameters [296fbcf]
  • Fix Parameter.raku with OUTER default values [87d2ff9][2f8538e]
  • Fix Capture.WHICH for subclasses of Capture [8808401]
  • Fix Capture.EXISTS-KEY for some Capture values [2d18cde]
  • Make (1..-Inf).reverse) work as intended [3983b4f]
  • Make (foo .. foo).reverse correctly [c588323]
  • Properly throw an exception on attempts to add a key to an immutable Map [1a10b63]
  • INPUTRC environment variable is now checked for a Readline config when using REPL [61a4836]
  • Add missing label support for some loop constructs [66a2250]
  • Make Real.sign always return an Int [42a303e]
  • Result of reverse called on a List value with holes returns a
    reverse of the list with Nil in place of holes instead of Mu now [e9468d6][ca49c15]
  • Various small JVM backend related improvements [945a4d8][b4819e7][f6f8ac0][25a1929][717b326]
• Additions:
  • Added docs/IN-MEMORIAM.md to commemorate departed contributors [9b6d89b][f9f3b66][170add2]
  • Implement support of environment variables RAKULIB and RAKUDOLIB
    to eventually replace deprecated PERL6LIB
    [b3bb0d3][cc165a0][1fd660a][00c0dec][be9bb4b][30a3186][e8f7eb5][61124c3][013b47d]
  • Implement support for environment variables RAKU_TEST_DIE_ON_FAIL and RAKU_TEST_TIMES
    to replace PERL6_TEST_DIE_ON_FAIL and PERL6_TEST_TIMES [30e7a67][afff3b0]
  • Show timing information when installing core modules in build process [58e6135]
  • Add multiple needles feature to Str.index/rindex [4cec44a][cf02c2e]
  • dd can now also handle BOOTContext objects [8b70bfb]
  • Str now has .Date and DateTime coercers [d95d218]
  • Date.yyyy-mm-dd now takes a separator parameter, defaulting to - [3017cfe]
  • Added Date.dd-mm-yyyy and Date.mm-dd-yyyy methods [70ac9b7]
  • IterationBuffer now has a .Slip method for easier iteration [d68fe5e]
  • Add is implementation-detail trait and hide exposed internals with it
    [12a3363][09c1b05][2ae9fdf][20c978e][78371bb][1d57d17][0c36feb]
  • Introduce ^... and ^...^ sequence generator operators [371590f][bbed225]
  • Add Date.last-date-in-month and Date.first-day-in-month methods [2fb7198][20ce556]
  • Add a parents metamethod to Metamodel::ParametricRoleGroupHOW [8dcfa84]
• Removals:
  • Remove undocumented Seq.new-consumed [0f97a7f]
  • Move implementation detail to internals [aed658d][b639221][86bc3b3]
    [75f34c5][d3385e7][73c7ded][9429728][509a7f6][439b860][e152aa6][ebb2949]
  • Turn infix:<…> and infix:<…^> into aliases [bd4e119]
• Build system:
  • Fix CircleCI configuration [efba963][ffcc619]
  • Be more robust when working with git reference directories that has spaces in path
    [3ec5848][e6044df][2f0dd45]
  • Move prebuild archive scripts to scripts folder [e111420]
  • Change update-submodules.pl to not use the shell at all [0ae8b4e]
  • Fix installation of perl6 aliases [aeb418a]
  • Move RUN_CLEAN_TARGET_FILES to a separate script [ffad102]
  • Fix building non-moar backends on Windows [47650eb]
  • Fix --nqp-home Configure.pl parameter [94fdb3d][59fe24b]
  • Make timing based performance tests opt in via RAKUDO_RUN_TIMING_TESTS environment variable [31ffc2b]
• Efficiency:
  • Speed up compilation of large projects [c909258][6956c06]
  • Make raku -n as fast as manual iteration with .IO.lines [be9c139][5cad8fe]
  • Improve behavior of default ThreadPoolScheduler,
    increasing efficiency of multithreaded applications [77a2201][750abe0]
  • Make method lookup with the handles trait 13% faster in certain cases [af59492]
  • Simplify "previous setting" logic [9f4a0f1]
  • Make creation of Failure objects faster [79ca396]
  • Make default DateTime stringification about 12% faster [0e87235][d95141e]
  • Make all IO::Path filetest methods a few percent faster [76c20d2][355b520][bd9d7c1]
  • Make IO::Path.mode about 14x as fast [a093b7f]
  • Make Date.yyyy-mm-dd about 250x as fast [3017cfe][f9ecf6e]
  • Make accessing native shaped arrays about 15x faster [80f2aeb]
  • Make Seq.Numeric and Seq.Int slightly faster [b7b9358]
  • Make a number of traits around 2% faster [4bbe308]
  • Make a minor optimization to a bunch of STORE methods [a4fbbfa]
  • Make Capture.raku 45% faster [5baa645][d6298ed]
  • Make Capture.WHICH 60% faster [688f671]
  • Make Capture.AT-KEY 2% faster [22c0a53]
  • Make push(@a, foo) about 20x as fast [385ab4c]
  • Make append(@a, foo) about 20x as fast [b98d2e0][1e4c736]
  • Make unshift(@a, foo) about 20x as fast [6541775]
  • Make prepend(@a, foo) about 20x as fast [9b735b7]
  • Make Num.Rat faster [f987cdb][2d1ba43]
  • Make Date.succ faster for days 28-31 [285da3b]
  • Make Str.tc about 10% faster [5610416]
  • Make Supply.grab a few percent faster [e0336d5]
  • ... (SEQUENCE) optimizations [fc8c828][935ee30][08545a3][d2ed7fa][fbf54e1][0fba27d]
    [8fe30b9][58fa99b][cf6177e][75c6ac3][500dc66][9286def][1355924][99cb2fa]
  • CompUnit::* optimizations [1dbb227][0249f23][28bd424][b4cdccc][cb7be78][638c895]
    [c9d9a09][83fed55][2cc509c][f1cdfb1][9d1b3f6][db6d230][7c9951c][83ddbab]
    [196db68][551c157][07643d3][e56eddd][20d3713][b4d32c9][8ac2eec][4e3e937]
    [6c7ffbd][17c45d8][8950380][747a35b][dedb744][cbd75f7][81ac37f][f54ad73]
    [fae4d45][d55146b][e33fe87][b712789][e756e62][199888a][95e8906][5271d12]
    [f48b80c][954e545][ef2d7d8][778ce37][1a0cc94][11b186c][dec40dc][d38d76d]
    [f31bd5b][e1af740][33fc895][a62da30][0736bf7][437f9f4][6e95e1b][6723d3a]
    [24fd100][b3f7ad2][c29a2bf][b07224f][7de42d4][7b5e143][68cadd7][f980898]
    [bec2ac4][d66068c][31197cd][2899d73][d4231b1][c2a1ee9][6d3f1c1][dceef85]
    [859d8f0][5ea1c34][2a58eb3][3d6e8d6][ea4bdf9][38a0eb8][2075489][13ca677]
  • Be better at inlining any Junction [76923be]
  • Optimize symbol lookup at compunit creation time [3583254][75da4cf]
  • Numerous small optimizations and improvements [014d493][776ef80][8722687]
    [49d1dcd][d8366ff][61b5e48][6793713][2edce41][d0e427d][0b414c0][88a9a36]
    [604085f][f70d95e][db6048e][a66f5c2][80be7d1][a5535b2][0d5f87c][3c83ce7]
    [3aaca26][43c7e96][dc7a796][e78483e][7bbf12d][b9b46c0][b0a720c][fcda03b]
    [4339073][cfc6cc3][33f4196][0aa8b2a][9cabea0][9b50329][6bb8710]
• Internal:
  • Update Appveyor perl requirement on Windows to 5.22 [370956b]
  • Add optional "lazy" flag to Rakudo::Iterator.SequentialIterators [101a80f]
  • Give IterationBuffer its own iterator method [2b49d68]
  • Adopt MoarVM-provided value_desc_cont [4221f82]
  • Add Rakudo::Iterator.AllButLast iterator [77defa7][aa5154e]
  • Add Rakudo::Iterator.AllButFirst iterator [4fe18a4]
  • Add and use Rakudo::Iterator.ReifiedListReverse iterator
    [3ca3802][270cc27][cea0fc7][4025ca4][447b396]
  • Add Exception.message stub [2e60552]
  • Make Mu.iterator use Rakudo::Iterator.OneValue [65fdea7]
  • Make Rakudo:Iterator.OneValue a PredictiveIterator [ec50b96]
  • Rename SlippyIterator to Rakudo::SlippyIterator [50f13f0][fa3c0db]
  • Don't use named variables between internal methods [9275057]
  • Implement VM.request-garbage-collection [e223be5]
  • Rakudo::Iterator.ReifiedList now returns a PredictiveIterator [063bfa0]

The following people contributed to this release:

Elizabeth Mattijsen, Stefan Seifert, Will "Coke" Coleda,
Juan Julián Merelo Guervós, Daniel Green, Vadim Belman,
Tom Browder, Jonathan Worthington, Ben Davies, Patrick Böker, Alexander Kiryuhin,
Stoned Elipot, Christian Bartolomäus, Tinmarino,
Aleks-Daniel Jakimenko-Aleksejev, Luis F. Uceta, Salve J. Nilsen,
Wictor Lund, Jan-Olof Hendig, Dave Lewis, Martin Ryan, Samantha McVey,
lukasvalle, Chloé Kekoa, Konrad Bucheli, Mikhail Khorkov, Suman Khanal,
Timo Paulssen, Will Coleda, cfa, stoned, Carlin, Claudio Ramirez,
Ed Mangimelli, José Joaquín Atria, Justin DeVuyst, Moritz Lenz,
Patrick Boeker, Tim Smith, Tobias Boege, sztanyi.

This release implements 6.c and 6.d versions of the Raku specification.
6.c version of the language is available if you use the use v6.c
version pragma, otherwise 6.d is the default.

Upcoming releases in 2020 will include new functionality that is not
part of 6.c or 6.d specifications, available with a lexically scoped
pragma. Our goal is to ensure that anything that is tested as part of
6.c and 6.d specifications will continue to work unchanged. There may
be incremental spec releases this year as well.

If you would like to contribute or get more information, visit
https://raku.org, https://rakudo.org/community, ask on the
perl6-compiler@perl.org mailing list, or ask on IRC #raku on freenode.

Additionally, we invite you to make a donation to The Perl Foundation
to sponsor Raku development: https://donate.perlfoundation.org/
(put “Raku Core Development Fund” in the ‘Purpose’ text field)

The next release of Rakudo (#136), is tentatively scheduled for 2020-05-30.

A list of the other planned release dates is available in the
“docs/release_guide.pod” file.

The development team appreciates feedback! If you’re using Rakudo, do
get back to us. Questions, comments, suggestions for improvements, cool
discoveries, incredible hacks, or any other feedback – get in touch with
us through (the above-mentioned) mailing list or IRC channel. Enjoy!

Please note that recent releases have known issues running on the JVM.
We are working to get the JVM backend working again but do not yet have
an estimated delivery date.