This is a live mirror of the Perl 5 development currently hosted at https://github.com/perl/perl5
Add comment explaining where terrible code comes from
[perl5.git] / Porting / perldelta_template.pod
... / ...
CommitLineData
1=encoding utf8
2
3=head1 NAME
4
5[ this is a template for a new perldelta file. Any text flagged as
6XXX needs to be processed before release. ]
7
8perldelta - what is new for perl v5.XXX.XXX
9
10=head1 DESCRIPTION
11
12This document describes differences between the 5.XXX.XXX release and
13the 5.XXX.XXX release.
14
15If you are upgrading from an earlier release such as 5.YYY.YYY, first read
16L<perl5YYYdelta>, which describes differences between 5.ZZZ.ZZZ and
175.YYY.YYY.
18
19=head1 Notice
20
21XXX Any important notices here
22
23=head1 Core Enhancements
24
25XXX New core language features go here. Summarise user-visible core language
26enhancements. Particularly prominent performance optimisations could go
27here, but most should go in the L</Performance Enhancements> section.
28
29[ List each enhancement as a =head2 entry ]
30
31=head1 Security
32
33XXX Any security-related notices go here. In particular, any security
34vulnerabilities closed should be noted here rather than in the
35L</Selected Bug Fixes> section.
36
37[ List each security issue as a =head2 entry ]
38
39=head1 Incompatible Changes
40
41XXX For a release on a stable branch, this section aspires to be:
42
43 There are no changes intentionally incompatible with 5.XXX.XXX
44 If any exist, they are bugs and reports are welcome.
45
46[ List each incompatible change as a =head2 entry ]
47
48=head1 Deprecations
49
50XXX Any deprecated features, syntax, modules etc. should be listed here.
51In particular, deprecated modules should be listed here even if they are
52listed as an updated module in the L</Modules and Pragmata> section.
53
54[ List each deprecation as a =head2 entry ]
55
56=head1 Performance Enhancements
57
58XXX Changes which enhance performance without changing behaviour go here. There
59may well be none in a stable release.
60
61[ List each enhancement as a =item entry ]
62
63=over 4
64
65=item *
66
67XXX
68
69=back
70
71=head1 Modules and Pragmata
72
73XXX All changes to installed files in F<cpan/>, F<dist/>, F<ext/> and F<lib/>
74go here. If Module::CoreList is updated, generate an initial draft of the
75following sections using F<Porting/corelist-perldelta.pl>, which prints stub
76entries to STDOUT. Results can be pasted in place of the '=head2' entries
77below. A paragraph summary for important changes should then be added by hand.
78In an ideal world, dual-life modules would have a F<Changes> file that could be
79cribbed.
80
81[ Within each section, list entries as a =item entry ]
82
83=head2 New Modules and Pragmata
84
85=over 4
86
87=item *
88
89XXX
90
91=back
92
93=head2 Updated Modules and Pragmata
94
95=over 4
96
97=item *
98
99L<XXX> has been upgraded from version 0.69 to version 0.70.
100
101=back
102
103=head2 Removed Modules and Pragmata
104
105=over 4
106
107=item *
108
109XXX
110
111=back
112
113=head1 Documentation
114
115XXX Changes to files in F<pod/> go here. Consider grouping entries by
116file and be sure to link to the appropriate page, e.g. L<perlfunc>.
117
118=head2 New Documentation
119
120XXX Changes which create B<new> files in F<pod/> go here.
121
122=head3 L<XXX>
123
124XXX Description of the purpose of the new file here
125
126=head2 Changes to Existing Documentation
127
128XXX Changes which significantly change existing files in F<pod/> go here.
129However, any changes to F<pod/perldiag.pod> should go in the L</Diagnostics>
130section.
131
132=head3 L<XXX>
133
134=over 4
135
136=item *
137
138XXX Description of the change here
139
140=back
141
142=head1 Diagnostics
143
144The following additions or changes have been made to diagnostic output,
145including warnings and fatal error messages. For the complete list of
146diagnostic messages, see L<perldiag>.
147
148XXX New or changed warnings emitted by the core's C<C> code go here. Also
149include any changes in L<perldiag> that reconcile it to the C<C> code.
150
151[ Within each section, list entries as a =item entry that links to perldiag,
152 e.g.
153
154 =item *
155
156 L<Invalid version object|perldiag/"Invalid version object">
157]
158
159=head2 New Diagnostics
160
161XXX Newly added diagnostic messages go here
162
163=head3 New Errors
164
165=over 4
166
167=item *
168
169XXX L<message|perldiag/"message">
170
171=back
172
173=head3 New Warnings
174
175=over 4
176
177=item *
178
179XXX L<message|perldiag/"message">
180
181=back
182
183=head2 Changes to Existing Diagnostics
184
185XXX Changes (i.e. rewording) of diagnostic messages go here
186
187=over 4
188
189=item *
190
191XXX Describe change here
192
193=back
194
195=head1 Utility Changes
196
197XXX Changes to installed programs such as F<perlbug> and F<xsubpp> go
198here. Most of these are built within the directories F<utils> and F<x2p>.
199
200[ List utility changes as a =head3 entry for each utility and =item
201entries for each change
202Use L<XXX> with program names to get proper documentation linking. ]
203
204=head3 L<XXX>
205
206=over 4
207
208=item *
209
210XXX
211
212=back
213
214=head1 Configuration and Compilation
215
216XXX Changes to F<Configure>, F<installperl>, F<installman>, and analogous tools
217go here. Any other changes to the Perl build process should be listed here.
218However, any platform-specific changes should be listed in the
219L</Platform Support> section, instead.
220
221[ List changes as a =item entry ].
222
223=over 4
224
225=item *
226
227XXX
228
229=back
230
231=head1 Testing
232
233XXX Any significant changes to the testing of a freshly built perl should be
234listed here. Changes which create B<new> files in F<t/> go here as do any
235large changes to the testing harness (e.g. when parallel testing was added).
236Changes to existing files in F<t/> aren't worth summarising, although the bugs
237that they represent may be covered elsewhere.
238
239[ List each test improvement as a =item entry ]
240
241=over 4
242
243=item *
244
245XXX
246
247=back
248
249=head1 Platform Support
250
251XXX Any changes to platform support should be listed in the sections below.
252
253[ Within the sections, list each platform as a =item entry with specific
254changes as paragraphs below it. ]
255
256=head2 New Platforms
257
258XXX List any platforms that this version of perl compiles on, that previous
259versions did not. These will either be enabled by new files in the F<hints/>
260directories, or new subdirectories and F<README> files at the top level of the
261source tree.
262
263=over 4
264
265=item XXX-some-platform
266
267XXX
268
269=back
270
271=head2 Discontinued Platforms
272
273XXX List any platforms that this version of perl no longer compiles on.
274
275=over 4
276
277=item XXX-some-platform
278
279XXX
280
281=back
282
283=head2 Platform-Specific Notes
284
285XXX List any changes for specific platforms. This could include configuration
286and compilation changes or changes in portability/compatibility. However,
287changes within modules for platforms should generally be listed in the
288L</Modules and Pragmata> section.
289
290=over 4
291
292=item XXX-some-platform
293
294XXX
295
296=back
297
298=head1 Internal Changes
299
300XXX Changes which affect the interface available to C<XS> code go here.
301Other significant internal changes for future core maintainers should
302be noted as well.
303
304[ List each change as a =item entry ]
305
306=over 4
307
308=item *
309
310XXX
311
312=back
313
314=head1 Selected Bug Fixes
315
316XXX Important bug fixes in the core language are summarised here.
317Bug fixes in files in F<ext/> and F<lib/> are best summarised in
318L</Modules and Pragmata>.
319
320[ List each fix as a =item entry ]
321
322=over 4
323
324=item *
325
326XXX
327
328=back
329
330=head1 Known Problems
331
332XXX Descriptions of platform agnostic bugs we know we can't fix go here. Any
333tests that had to be C<TODO>ed for the release would be noted here, unless
334they were specific to a particular platform (see below).
335
336This is a list of some significant unfixed bugs, which are regressions
337from either 5.XXX.XXX or 5.XXX.XXX.
338
339[ List each fix as a =item entry ]
340
341=over 4
342
343=item *
344
345XXX
346
347=back
348
349=head1 Obituary
350
351XXX If any significant core contributor has died, we've added a short obituary
352here.
353
354=head1 Acknowledgements
355
356XXX The list of people to thank goes here.
357
358=head1 Reporting Bugs
359
360If you find what you think is a bug, you might check the articles
361recently posted to the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup and the perl
362bug database at http://rt.perl.org/perlbug/ . There may also be
363information at http://www.perl.org/ , the Perl Home Page.
364
365If you believe you have an unreported bug, please run the L<perlbug>
366program included with your release. Be sure to trim your bug down
367to a tiny but sufficient test case. Your bug report, along with the
368output of C<perl -V>, will be sent off to perlbug@perl.org to be
369analysed by the Perl porting team.
370
371If the bug you are reporting has security implications, which make it
372inappropriate to send to a publicly archived mailing list, then please send
373it to perl5-security-report@perl.org. This points to a closed subscription
374unarchived mailing list, which includes
375all the core committers, who will be able
376to help assess the impact of issues, figure out a resolution, and help
377co-ordinate the release of patches to mitigate or fix the problem across all
378platforms on which Perl is supported. Please only use this address for
379security issues in the Perl core, not for modules independently
380distributed on CPAN.
381
382=head1 SEE ALSO
383
384The F<Changes> file for an explanation of how to view exhaustive details
385on what changed.
386
387The F<INSTALL> file for how to build Perl.
388
389The F<README> file for general stuff.
390
391The F<Artistic> and F<Copying> files for copyright information.
392
393=cut