The Parrot team is proud to announce the release of Parrot version 0.0.9, code named "Nazgul". It is downloadable from <http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/S/SF/SFINK/parrot-0.0.9.tar.gz>. If you would like to check the latest copy out from CVS, see the instructions at <http://dev.perl.org/cvs/>.
Try it out by unpacking it, then running: perl Configure.pl make make test If you would like to join in the fun, see <http://lists.perl.org/showlist.cgi?name=perl6-internals>. All discussion occurs on the perl6-internals mailing list. Start from http://www.parrotcode.org/ for information on all Parroty things. It's been a while since the last release, so the list of changes is quite long. Here are some of the highlights: - Native function calling interface - Stack/list aggregate rewrite (faster, more capable) - Scratchpads - Preliminary DotGNU support -- type conversion ops - Buffer/PMC unification - stabs debugging support for JIT - Jako overhaul - Optional Lea memory allocator - Parrot sprintf - Miniparrot - PMC Properties - Various JIT improvements (eg platform independence layer) - Extensible packfiles - Restructured PMC hierarchy - Real Scheme (with lambda!) Parrot currently supports several nontrivial languages, and is adding features at a rapid pace. I would like to encourage everyone interested to check out the Parrot development scene. It's a friendly but focused environment, and we could always use a few more able-minded volunteers. Also, don't think you need to be some Hacker Lord in order to help out -- some of our most valuable contributors barely know C. Assistance is always appreciated in the areas of: - documentation - testing - support tools - tinderbox hosting - platform-dependent knowledge - and, of course, coding We are in particular need of platform-specific knowledge, seeing as how we have a multiplatform JIT, a garbage collector that needs to scan processor registers (and register windows etc.), dynamic library loading, and direct native function calls. Check out the mailing list archive at http://archive.develooper.com/perl6-internals%40perl.org/ or just download the code and try it out!
