1 =head1 How to write a perldelta
3 This is intended as a guide for how to write a perldelta. There has never
4 been a formal specification - the working rule is "fake up a document that
5 looks something close to the existing perldeltas". So if it's unclear how
6 to do something, see if it's been done before, and if the approach works
11 Note there is a file F<Porting/perldelta_template.pod> which contains a
12 skeleton version of a perldelta.pod file, which should normally be copied
13 in at the start of a new release.
17 Pod is more a physical markup language, rather than a logical markup language.
18 Despite that it has some built in conventions. B<Stick to them>:
22 =item * C<FE<lt>E<gt>> is for File
24 =item * C<CE<lt>E<gt>> is for Code
26 =item * C<LE<lt>E<gt>> is for Link
30 Whilst modules could also be links, usually in the context of the perldelta
31 the reference is to code C<use>ing them, rather than something within their
34 Be consistent in how bugs are referenced. One style is
40 C<perl #43010> inline, but enclose in square brackets after a sentence.
41 C<[perl #43010]>. This mirrors how rt.perl.org subject lines appear.
45 C<rt.cpan.org #43010> inline, but enclose in square brackets after a sentence.
46 C<[rt.cpan.org #43010]>. This mirrors how rt.cpan.org subject lines appear.
50 C<http://bugs.activestate.com/show_bug.cgi?id=72443>
62 In a list, either make every item a note, or a full sentence. Either end
63 every item with a full stop, or ensure that no item ends with one. I<regex>
64 B<xor> I<regexp> - choose exactly one, and stick to it.
68 Historically, the perldelta has consisted of a sequence of C<=head1>
69 sections, usually in the same order. Un-needed sections are deleted,
70 and if something doesn't fit nicely into the existing sections, a new
71 more appropriate section is created.
79 perl5104delta - what is new for perl v5.10.4
83 For a release on a stable branch, follows this formula:
85 This document describes differences between the 5.10.3 release and
88 For the start of a new stable branch, follows this formula:
90 This document describes differences between the 5.12.0 release and
93 Clearly this sets the scope of which changes are to be summarised in the rest
98 There was a I<Notice> section in L<perl589delta>, to carry an important
101 =item Incompatible Changes
103 For a release on a stable branch, this section aspires to be
105 There are no changes intentionally incompatible with 5.10.3. If any exist,
106 they are bugs and reports are welcome.
108 =item Core Enhancements
110 New core language features go here. Summarise user-visible core language
111 enhancements. Particularly prominent performance optimisations could go
112 here, but most should go in the L</Performance Enhancements> section.
114 Feature inside modules (pure-Perl and XS) go in L</Modules and Pragmata>
118 List any platforms that this version of perl compiles on, that previous
119 versions did not. These will either be enabled by new files in the F<hints/>
120 directories, or new subdirectories and F<README> files at the top level of the
123 =item Modules and Pragmata
125 All changes to installed files in F<ext/> and F<lib/> go here, in a list
126 ordered by distribution name. Minimally it should be the module version,
127 but it's more useful to the end user to give a paragraph's summary of the
128 module's changes. In an ideal world, dual-life modules would have a
129 F<Changes> file that could be cribbed.
131 Whilst this section could be built by incrementally working through change
132 descriptions applying to files, this is prone to error. It's better to
133 collate changes to F<ext/> and F<lib/> by module, and then summarise all
134 changes to a module as a group. This can be done by partitioning directories
135 within F<ext/> and F<lib/> to a number of people.
137 B<FIXME> - this could be automated better
139 If Module::CoreList has been updated, then F<Porting/corelist-perldelta.pl>
140 will automatically print out several sections if relevant that can be
141 pasted into F<perldelta>:
143 * New Modules and Pragmata
146 * Removed Modules and Pragmata
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, splice the extra lines right into the output,
162 as a basis for summarising.
164 (And if not, experiment with using F<git> to get the relevant part of changelog
165 for the particular file in core)
167 These could also be enhanced further by using a Pod parser module to produce
168 a parse tree of F<perl${whatever}delta.pod>, and splicing in the updates
169 correctly without throwing existing entries away.
171 If you think that's nuts, take a look at what F<pod/buildtoc> already does to
172 splice into existing Makefiles on various platforms:
174 http://perl5.git.perl.org/perl.git/blob/blead:/pod/buildtoc#l498
176 Perl is this really powerful language for text manipulation. And fun to
177 play with. We need to get that message out. :-)
179 =item Utility Changes
181 Changes to installed programs such as F<perlbug> and F<xsubpp> go here. Most
182 of these are built within the directories F<utils> and F<x2p>.
184 =item New Documentation
186 Changes which create B<new> files in F<pod/> go here.
188 B<FIXME> - this could be automated, at least as far as generating a first
195 Start with a clean exploded tarball of the previous release, and a clean
196 checkout of the branch in question
200 Take the F<MANIFEST> file of each
204 Search for lines matching C<m!^pod/.*\.pod!>
212 Explode if anyone deleted documentation. [No idea what the policy on that is
217 For each file only in the newer F<MANIFEST>
223 Use F<git> to determine its Author
227 Open the pod file itself
231 Grab the description section
235 Write out a block of text starting roughly
237 L<perlfoo>, by A. U. Thor, provides @description
243 =item Changes to Existing Documentation
245 Changes which significantly change existing files in F<pod/> go here.
246 Any changes to F<pod/perldiag.pod> should go in
247 L</New or Changed Diagnostics>.
249 =item Performance Enhancements
251 Changes which enhance performance without changing behaviour go here. There
252 may well be none in a stable release.
254 =item Installation and Configuration Improvements
256 Changes to F<Configure>, F<installperl>, F<installman>, and analogous tools
259 =item Selected Bug Fixes
261 Important bug fixes in the core language are summarised here.
262 Bug fixes in files in F<ext/> and F<lib/> are best summarised in
263 L</Modules and Pragmata>.
265 =item New or Changed Diagnostics
267 New or changed warnings emitted by the core's C<C> code go here.
269 =item Changed Internals
271 Changes which affect the interface available to C<XS> code go here.
275 Changes which create B<new> files in F<t/> go here. Changes to existing files
276 in F<t/> aren't worth summarising, although the bugs that they represent
279 Autogenerate this section by running something like this:
281 # perl newtests-perldelta.pl v5.11.1 HEAD
285 Descriptions of platform agnostic bugs we know we can't fix go here. Any
286 tests that had to be C<TODO>ed for the release would be noted here, unless
287 they were specific to a particular platform (see below).
291 Add any new known deprecations here.
293 =item Platform Specific Notes
295 Any changes specific to a particular platform. VMS and Win32 are the usual
296 stars here. It's probably best to group changes under the same section layout
297 as the main perldelta.
301 If any significant core contributor has died, we've added a short obituary
304 =item Acknowledgements
308 perl Porting/acknowledgements.pl v5.15.0..HEAD
312 This doesn't usually need to be changed from the previous perldelta.
316 This doesn't usually need to be changed from the previous perldelta.