Perl 5.20 new features

Perl 5.20 is out and there are some nice syntax changes that make life easier for Perlers, along with some improvements that don’t require any work from you. Some of the features are experimental, so be careful that you don’t create problems by overusing them until they settle down.

You can download the Perl source from CPAN. For Windows, Strawberry Perl 5.20 is available now. The full details are in the perldelta Continue reading “Perl 5.20 new features”

Perl 5.16 new features

The Perl 5 Porters are currently working on Perl 5.15, the development track that will end up as Perl 5.16. By reading the perldelta515* documentation, you can get a peek at what will mostly likely be in the next maintenance version of Perl. You need to read each of the perldelta5* in a development series because they only document the changes in to the previous development release, not the cumulative changes since the last major release.

We’ll cover these features, although we might have to stretch some of the posts a bit since some of these aren’t that radical:

Use the \N regex character class to get “not a newline”

Perl 5.12 introduced an experimental regex character class to stand in for every character except one, the newline. The \N character class is everything but the newline.

In prior versions of Perl, this is the same thing as the . meta character. That is, it’s the same as long as someone doesn’t add the /s to the match or substitution operator or the regex quoting operator, or doesn’t insert the option inside the pattern: Continue reading “Use the \N regex character class to get “not a newline””

Use when() as a statement modifier

Perl 5.10 introduced the given-when statement, and Perl 5.12 refines it slightly by letting you use the when as a statement modifier. A statement modifier puts the conditional expression at the end of the statement (see perlsyn). You’ve probably already used many of these: Continue reading “Use when() as a statement modifier”

Perl 5.14 new features

The Perl 5 Porters released 5.14. By reading the perldelta51[34]* documentation, you can see what’s new in this maintenance version of Perl. David Golden, one of the Perl 5.13 release managers, put together what he’s calling the perldeltadelta, which is just the most interesting bits of the longish perl*delta files for Perl 5.13, the experimental track that led up to Perl 5.14. He’s covered most of the interesting bits. Continue reading “Perl 5.14 new features”

Perl 5.8 features

Perl 5.8, mostly a release that improved much of the unseen things in Perl, did have some notable, user-visible features.


  • Restricted hashes with Hash::Util (5.8.0)
  • Use sitecustomize.pl to affect all programs (5.8.7)
  • PerlIO is now the default (5.8.0)