We went over developments on the point release front. Things are now finally moving, if slowly.
We discussed some internal quality-of-life improvements to the PSC meeting workflow.
We briefly reflected on our work as the PSC given our various personal circumstances this year.
We discussed PPC 0027 (any/all), prompted by the Mojolicious::Lite DSL question. We went over its status, how the work got merged, and current issues with the design. We confirmed an already possible technical solution to the Mojolicious issue and agreed that it satisfies us for now, but we still intend to pick up the further issues at a later time.
I just needed a few rows of UUIDs in a column of a spreadsheet, more for esthetics than anything else. uuidgen to the rescue.
At the time I didn't realize that uuidgen natively supports outputting multiple ids like so
uuidgen -C 8
The truly lazy path would have been to read the fine uuidgen manual.
Alas, supposing I needed to make multiple calls to uuidgen, I went with a Perl one-liner with a loop, as I couldn't recall the Bash loop syntax.
Here comes the laziness... I I didn't want to write something like this:
perl -e 'print `uuidgen` for @{[1..5]}';
I'm not so found of of perl's de-reference syntax these days, also that array reference/range was giving "the ick" as my kids would say. I needed something lazier, cleaner. I wondered if there were any default/exported arrays available to me that don't have too many elements to them.... Ah, I know!
Sie bieten, wir catchen!
nicsell ist ein Domain-Backorder-Dienst, auch Dropcatcher genannt, der es Ihnen ermöglicht, auf eine Vielzahl freiwerdender Domains zu bieten, die sich aktuell in der Löschungsphase befinden.
Schon ab einem geringen Startgebot von 10 € können Sie an unseren Auktionen teilnehmen und haben die Chance an Ihre Wunschdomain zu gelangen.
Übrigens: Zur Verstärkung unseres Teams in Osnabrück suchen wir engagierte Perl-Entwickler (m/w/d). Bei Interesse freuen wir uns auf Ihre Bewerbung!
This is a continuation of a series of articles about how to write XS libraries that are more convenient and foolproof for the Perl users, while not blocking them from using the actual C API.
If you spot anything wrong, or want to contribute suggestions, open an issue at the GitHub repo
Wrapping Transient Objects
One frequent and difficult problem you will encounter when writing XS wrappers around a
C library is what to do when the C library exposes a struct which the user needs to see,
but the lifespan of that struct is controlled by something other than the reference the
user is holding onto.
As from today, when I announce a new version of one of my TiddlyWikis, I'll list the 2 most recent parts of the change log. These are just copies of the most recent parts of the para called VersionInfo.
And why 2 parts? To help those who missed the last announcement.
o Author:
- Ron Savage
- Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- http://savage.net.au
- https://symboliciq.au
- https://quantumiq.au
- https://metacpan.org/author/RSAVAGE
o version:
- Perl extension for Version Objects
- https://metacpan.org/dist/versionhttps://metacpan.org/dist/version
Now I want it to be available for Perl and in progress of coding it.
The progress is happening here
The progress is happening at a moderate pace.
Currently this runs okay on windows, and should also be okay everywhere else (not tested)
Lots of progress is done already.
Lots of work needs to be done.
I think I've crossed an imaginary equator recently and expect it to be finished in a month or two.
Please let me know here about your ideas, so I could add to the module.
PS.
This post is a slight misuse of the "blogs.perl.org" resource, because I want to create some small corner for developers discussion about it, so I am doing an attempt to invite interested people comment about development here.
I had written a Math paper which was not good enough to be published in a journal, yet I wanted to have proof of the date I wrote it on so I could post the paper on the web without other people later being able to question who first came up with the idea.
The way I thought was more correct to do this was to publish the paper's sha256 checksum on the Bitcoin blockchain. Posting the SHA on social media (such as x.com) was not enough, as paid members can edit their old posts.
I got in touch with BBRTJ, the maintainer of Bitcoin::Crypto, who was very helpful in teaching me how to use his module and achieving my aim.
The goal, he told me, was to include the SHA256 checksum as the comment (technically the 'NULLDATA') of a small bitcoin transaction.
I'm resigning from the board position at TPF (The Perl Foundation) also known as TPRF (The Perl and Raku Foundation).
tl;dr
After eight years with the foundation board, the time has come for me to step down. While I'm leaving the board, I intend to remain an active member of the Perl community and continue contributing in meaningful ways for Perl users and developers. You'll still see me at various Perl events; and perhaps Raku ones, too.
Over the years, I've learned a great deal, (hopefully) made a positive impact, and had a lot of fun.
Why I'm stepping down #1. The board needs a refresh
As I've noted before, having long-term board members at a nonprofit has advantages and disadvantages. My resignation opens the door for new perspectives and ideas. The foundation's board has started searching for backfill, which is good for the board's long-term success.
People usually don't think about Perl's type system. Some would even mistakenly claim it doesn't have one. It is, however, a most unusual one that doesn't really look like anything else.
What is a type anyway? And what is a type system? I'm not going to precisely define it here, that's for academics, but generally speaking a type is a fundamental property of a variable or value that determines what operations can and can not be done with it and what invariants it must hold. In a strong type system it is a stable trait: it can't change over the lifetime of the value/variable.
In some type systems containers are typed (such as C) and values really don't exist separate from containers. In other typed systems containers are typeless but values are typed (e.g. Python, Javascript, ). There are languages where both values and containers are typed (e.g. Java, C#), typically this means that the container constrains the values in it.
Contrary to what you might expect, Perl has the latter sort of typesystem, but with a twist.
FOSDEM 2025 is just around the corner, and you know what that means—great talks, amazing people, and of course… fantastic food! 🥂
The Perl and Raku Foundation (TPRF) is once again bringing the community together for a special dinner during the FOSDEM weekend. If you’re an active member of the Perl and Raku ecosystem, this is your chance to relax, connect, and celebrate with fellow developers, contributors, and enthusiasts.
📅 When? Saturday Evening, during FOSDEM weekend
📍 Where? A great venue in Brussels (details will be shared with registered attendees)
💬 Who? Active community members, contributors, and Perl/Raku enthusiasts
Why You Should Join 🍻
Meet fellow Perl and Raku hackers in a relaxed, social atmosphere.
Celebrate our open-source wins with great conversations and laughter.
Enjoy a delicious meal, because good food makes great coding even better!
Forge new collaborations and chat about everything from regex wizardry to the future of Perl and Raku.
All three of us attended, but none of us had the time for significant discussion, so we decided to reclaim the time and make some progress on our various to-do list items.
