The past two weeks first saw a 2016.01 Rakudo compiler release, followed by a 2016.01.1 release with a hot-fix for packagers, both done by Will [Coke] Coleda. Then we had the first post-Christmas Rakudo Star Release, done by Tobias Leich. Followed by the Windows MSI installers, also done by Tobias Leich. Many kudo’s to Will and Tobias for the hard work getting this together for the first time in the Perl 6 Post-Christmas world!

Thank You Sponsors!

Will [Coke] Coleda wrote an addendum to the original Christmas Announcement to thank all of the corporate sponsors of Perl 6 over the years.

Javascript Backend for Rakudo

Paweł Murias, already known for his work on the Javascript backend work for Rakudo, has made a Grant Application for 4 months of full time development work on the Javascript backend. The list of deliverables is impressive:

Upload rakudo-js to npm and CPAN.

Have this rakudo-js be able compile our chosen subset of the 6.c roast (official Perl 6 test suite) to JavaScript and pass them in a modern browser.

Write a simple REPL in Perl 6 that will run in a modern browser.

Write a tutorial showing how to use the JavaScript backend.

Please check it out and let your voice be heard! It would be so nice to have this!

Experimental Multi-Line REPL

Rob Hoelz is working on a experimental multi-line REPL and wants you to test it out and receive any feedback you may have. This looks like a really exciting new development for REPL lovers!

Atom Perl 6 Editor Tools

Ahmad M. Zawawi introduced an impressive Github repository of Atom Perl 6 Editor Tools. If Atom is your favourite editor, then this is definitely a place to check out!

FOSDEM 2016

It was busy, and the Perl DevRoom was filled to the rim for most of the day. Unfortunately, no videos available as of now, but they are expected soon (especially since we had Tom Bloor of ShadowCat also taping all of the presentations with 2 cameras). There are also some pictures by Chris Jack. And there are some interviews with Wendy van Dijk, Curtis “Ovid” Poe and Mark Keating made by Hacker Public Radio. And reports by Steve Mynott and Mark Keating.

Other developments

Elizabeth Mattijsen has done a lot of incremental optimizations, mostly about Map/Hash access, object creation, dynamic variable lookups, phaser handling, which made some programs of some users go about 10% faster

has done a lot of incremental optimizations, mostly about Map/Hash access, object creation, dynamic variable lookups, phaser handling, which made some programs of some users go about 10% faster Jonathan Worthington has been optimizing MoarVM and plugging memory leaks. These have not been merged yet, but could have dramatical memory savings for some applications. More about this probably next week!

Blog Posts

Ecosystem Additions

Almost an average of 2 additions per day!

ACME::Scrub by thundergnat

App::P6DX by Jake Russo

ACME::Mangle by Jake Russo

Linux::Signal::ProcessInfo by LE Manh Cuong

LendingClub by Jeremy Carman

WebService::SOP by Yoko Oyama

String::Quotemeta by Zoffix Znet

Algorithm::Treap by okaoka

Inline::Scheme::Gambit by Zhenyi Zhou

Term::Choose by kuerbis

Inline::Scheme::Guile by Jeff Goff

Control::Bail by skids

Winding down

Sorry everybody about the Weekly taking 2 weeks again. But after FOSDEM, I was pretty much exhausted. If you are annoyed by the unweekliness of the Perl 6 Weekly, please consider becoming part of the P6W writing team! Contact timotimo or lizmat on the #perl6 IRC channel on Freenode.