From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: merlyn@stonehenge.com (Randal L. Schwartz) Subject: Re: Let's bump the minimum Perl version to 5.8 Date: Fri, 24 Sep 2010 06:47:53 -0700 Message-ID: <86pqw3uuba.fsf@red.stonehenge.com> References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: QUOTED-PRINTABLE Cc: Tor Arntsen , Tait , git@vger.kernel.org, Alex Riesen To: =?utf-8?B?w4Z2YXIgQXJuZmrDtnLDsA==?= Bjarmason X-From: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Fri Sep 24 15:50:51 2010 Return-path: Envelope-to: gcvg-git-2@lo.gmane.org Received: from vger.kernel.org ([209.132.180.67]) by lo.gmane.org with smtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1Oz8fn-00058D-3h for gcvg-git-2@lo.gmane.org; Fri, 24 Sep 2010 15:50:47 +0200 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S932101Ab0IXNrz convert rfc822-to-quoted-printable (ORCPT ); Fri, 24 Sep 2010 09:47:55 -0400 Received: from red.stonehenge.com ([208.79.95.2]:11513 "EHLO red.stonehenge.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1756372Ab0IXNry convert rfc822-to-8bit (ORCPT ); Fri, 24 Sep 2010 09:47:54 -0400 Received: by red.stonehenge.com (Postfix, from userid 1001) id 4C010513C; Fri, 24 Sep 2010 06:47:54 -0700 (PDT) x-mayan-date: Long count = 12.19.17.13.1; tzolkin = 4 Imix; haab = 14 Chen In-Reply-To: (=?utf-8?B?IsOGdmFyIEFybmZqw7Zyw7A=?= Bjarmason"'s message of "Fri, 24 Sep 2010 12:56:31 +0000") User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/23.2 (berkeley-unix) Sender: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Precedence: bulk List-ID: X-Mailing-List: git@vger.kernel.org Archived-At: >>>>> "=C3=86var" =3D=3D =C3=86var Arnfj=C3=B6r=C3=B0 Bjarmason writes: =C3=86var> Since we're not getting patches for common things that have = been =C3=86var> broken on 5.6 for years and bumping the requirenment to an 8= year old =C3=86var> perl (5.8) instead of a 10 year old one (5.6) would make thi= ngs much =C3=86var> easier, including: =C3=86var> * Fixing the perl/ Makefile mess =C3=86var> * Being able to use 5.8 features =C3=86var> * Being able to honestly support the 5.8 release, 5.6 doesn= 't even =C3=86var> compile on modern systems without undocumented monkeypatc= hes, and =C3=86var> few people use it so we don't get fixes for it. =C3=86var> I'd like to propose dropping 5.6 support, and move to say 5.= 008. I can =C3=86var> do the work required to add appropriate docs / use statement= s and =C3=86var> fixes to bugs that we can't fix on 5.6. As the token resident Perl expert, I'd be completely fine with that. Sane choice. It might be useful to document that by adding: require 5.008; at the beginning of each file that presumes it, as you get around to editing it. That way, Perl won't even try to run it if it's too old. --=20 Randal L. Schwartz - Stonehenge Consulting Services, Inc. - +1 503 777 = 0095 Smalltalk/Perl/Unix consulting, Technical writing, Comedy, etc. etc. See http://methodsandmessages.vox.com/ for Smalltalk and Seaside discus= sion