3 how_to_write_a_perldelta - How to write a perldelta
7 This is intended as a guide for how to write a perldelta. There has never
8 been a formal specification - the working rule is "fake up a document that
9 looks something close to the existing perldeltas". So if it's unclear how
10 to do something, see if it's been done before, and if the approach works
15 Note there is a file F<Porting/perldelta_template.pod> which contains a
16 skeleton version of a perldelta.pod file, which should normally be copied
17 in at the start of a new release.
21 Pod is more a physical markup language, rather than a logical markup language.
22 Despite that it has some built in conventions. B<Stick to them>:
26 =item * C<FE<lt>E<gt>> is for File
28 =item * C<CE<lt>E<gt>> is for Code
30 =item * C<LE<lt>E<gt>> is for Link
34 Whilst modules could also be links, usually in the context of the perldelta
35 the reference is to code C<use>ing them, rather than something within their
38 Be consistent in how bugs are referenced. One style is
44 C<perl #43010> inline, but enclose in square brackets after a sentence.
45 C<[perl #43010]>. This mirrors how rt.perl.org subject lines appear.
49 C<rt.cpan.org #43010> inline, but enclose in square brackets after a sentence.
50 C<[rt.cpan.org #43010]>. This mirrors how rt.cpan.org subject lines appear.
54 C<http://bugs.activestate.com/show_bug.cgi?id=72443>
66 In a list, either make every item a note, or a full sentence. Either end
67 every item with a full stop, or ensure that no item ends with one. I<regex>
68 B<xor> I<regexp> - choose exactly one, and stick to it.
72 Historically, the perldelta has consisted of a sequence of C<=head1>
73 sections, usually in the same order. Un-needed sections are deleted,
74 and if something doesn't fit nicely into the existing sections, a new
75 more appropriate section is created.
83 perl5104delta - what is new for perl v5.10.4
87 For a release on a stable branch, follows this formula:
89 This document describes differences between the 5.10.3 release
90 and the 5.10.4 release.
92 For the start of a new stable branch, follows this formula:
94 This document describes differences between the 5.12.0 release
95 and the 5.10.0 release.
97 Clearly this sets the scope of which changes are to be summarised in the rest
102 There was a I<Notice> section in L<perl589delta>, to carry an important
105 =item Incompatible Changes
107 For a release on a stable branch, this section aspires to be
109 There are no changes intentionally incompatible with 5.10.3.
110 If any exist, they are bugs and reports are welcome.
112 =item Core Enhancements
114 New core language features go here. Summarise user-visible core language
115 enhancements. Particularly prominent performance optimisations could go
116 here, but most should go in the L</Performance Enhancements> section.
118 Feature inside modules (pure-Perl and XS) go in L</Modules and Pragmata>
122 List any platforms that this version of perl compiles on, that previous
123 versions did not. These will either be enabled by new files in the F<hints/>
124 directories, or new subdirectories and F<README> files at the top level of the
127 =item Modules and Pragmata
129 All changes to installed files in F<cpan/>, F<dist/>, F<ext/> and F<lib/> go
130 here, in a list ordered by distribution name. Minimally it should be the
131 module version, but it's more useful to the end user to give a paragraph's
132 summary of the module's changes. In an ideal world, dual-life modules would
133 have a F<Changes> file that could be cribbed.
135 Whilst this section could be built by incrementally working through change
136 descriptions applying to files, this is prone to error. It's better to
137 collate changes by module, and then summarise all changes to a module as a
140 If Module::CoreList has been updated, then F<Porting/corelist-perldelta.pl>
141 will automatically update two sections in F<perldelta>:
143 * New Modules and Pragmata
144 * Updated Modules and Pragmata
146 (Currently, it does not update the Removed Modules and Pragmata section.)
148 Each section will have stub entries following a template like this:
152 Upgraded from version 0.01 to 0.02
154 It does not include modules listed in F<Porting/Maintainers.pl> under
155 C<_PERLLIB>, but it's a start. Where relevant, a summary of changes can be
158 A more adventurous enhancement would be to automate grabbing
159 the changelogs for dual lived modules. For each of them, grab the relevant
160 changes files from CPAN for the old and new versions, and if the old one is
161 a strict subset of the new one, use the extra lines as a basis for summarising.
163 (And if not, experiment with using F<git> to get the relevant part of changelog
164 for the particular file in core.)
166 =item Utility Changes
168 Changes to installed programs such as F<perlbug> and F<xsubpp> go here. Most
169 of these are built within the directory F<utils>.
171 =item New Documentation
173 Changes which create B<new> files in F<pod/> go here.
175 B<FIXME> - this could be automated, at least as far as generating a first
182 Start with a clean exploded tarball of the previous release, and a clean
183 checkout of the branch in question
187 Take the F<MANIFEST> file of each
191 Search for lines matching C<m!^pod/.*\.pod!>
199 Explode if anyone deleted documentation. [No idea what the policy on that is
204 For each file only in the newer F<MANIFEST>
210 Use F<git> to determine its Author
214 Open the pod file itself
218 Grab the description section
222 Write out a block of text starting roughly
224 L<perlfoo>, by A. U. Thor, provides @description
230 =item Changes to Existing Documentation
232 Changes which significantly change existing files in F<pod/> go here.
233 Any changes to F<pod/perldiag.pod> should go in
234 L</New or Changed Diagnostics>.
236 =item Performance Enhancements
238 Changes which enhance performance without changing behaviour go here. There
239 may well be none in a stable release.
241 =item Installation and Configuration Improvements
243 Changes to F<Configure>, F<installperl>, F<installman>, and analogous tools
246 =item Selected Bug Fixes
248 Important bug fixes in the core language are summarised here.
249 Bug fixes in files in F<ext/> and F<lib/> are best summarised in
250 L</Modules and Pragmata>.
252 =item New or Changed Diagnostics
254 New or changed warnings emitted by the core's C<C> code go here.
256 =item Changed Internals
258 Changes which affect the interface available to C<XS> code go here.
262 Changes which create B<new> files in F<t/> go here. Changes to existing files
263 in F<t/> aren't worth summarising, although the bugs that they represent
266 Autogenerate this section by running something like this:
268 # perl newtests-perldelta.pl v5.11.1 HEAD
272 Descriptions of platform agnostic bugs we know we can't fix go here. Any
273 tests that had to be C<TODO>ed for the release would be noted here, unless
274 they were specific to a particular platform (see below).
278 Add any new known deprecations here.
280 =item Platform Specific Notes
282 Any changes specific to a particular platform. VMS and Win32 are the usual
283 stars here. It's probably best to group changes under the same section layout
284 as the main perldelta.
288 If any significant core contributor has died, we've added a short obituary
291 =item Acknowledgements
295 perl Porting/acknowledgements.pl v5.15.0..HEAD
299 This doesn't usually need to be changed from the previous perldelta.
303 This doesn't usually need to be changed from the previous perldelta.