Recently in Parrot Category

Back in 2007, I worked with David Maxwell of Coverity to get Parrot scanned by Coverity Prevent. Coverity Prevent is a static C analysis tool that looks for potential bugs in a codebase, and it's far more comprehensive than built-in GCC warnings or splint. It's also expensive, licensed per-seat, but Coverity offers a service to open source projects to analyze their source code.

I worked on the Coverity results for a while, fixing bugs and removing dead code here and there, but for whatever reason turned my attention elsewhere.

Last week, I ran into David during OSCON, and it sparked my memory of how useful the Coverity tool was. It had been so long since I'd checked, I couldn't even remember my login credentials. It didn't matter, as it turns out the scanner hadn't been running, and in fact was still pointing at the old Parrot Subversion repository. Now, he's got things going again, and I have a raft of new potential bugs to investigate and fix.

I want to thank Coverity for providing this service to the Perl and Parrot communities. There are plenty of ways to support open source without having to shell out cash. This is a very useful one indeed.

These links are collected from the Perlbuzz Twitter feed. If you have suggestions for news bits, please mail me at andy@perlbuzz.com.

• What's Ricardo Signes working on? (rjbs.manxome.org)
• Test::Pod now checks for illegal L<> constructs (perlbuzz.com)
• Changes in the board of the Perl Foundation (news.perlfoundation.org)
• Parrot covered in SDTimes (sdtimes.com)
• WWW::Mechanize::Cached under new ownership, now with first new version in five years (search.cpan.org)
• How I came to contribute to Perl 6 (perlmonks.org)
• Join the Padre team for Padre's first birthday party (use.perl.org)
• On Parrot: "Truly, this is a project to watch." (sdtimes.com)
• 48% of Perlbuzz feed subscribers are from outside the USA
• Jim Brandt to represent Perl in open source language roundtable webcast (oreilly.com)
• I'm ready to give Brad Choate a big smooch for Text::Textile just about now. (search.cpan.org)
• Perl's own Skud will be keynoting at OSCON (en.oreilly.com)
• Generating heat maps with Perl (internetsamhard.com)
• Testers needed for next release of Strawberry (use.perl.org)

These links are collected from the Perlbuzz Twitter feed. If you have suggestions for news bits, please mail me at andy@perlbuzz.com.

• OSCON for Postgres geeks (it.toolbox.com)
• SpamAssassin looking to drop Perl 5.6 support (taint.org)
• chromatic on the value of the pumpking (modernperlbooks.com)
• Search your Perl documentation with perldoc-search and/or Perldoc::Search (use.perl.org)
• RT @chromatic_x Is getting code into the !perl core a fight against inertia and petty hostility? (ur1.ca)
• Saving state with prove (blog.woobling.org)
• RT @chromatic_x Why we're still working on Perl 6 after all these years (bit.ly)
• Chris Prather's YAPC::NA slides available (chris.prather.org)
• RT @chromatic_x Why perl5i matters: (bit.ly)
• Gabor Szabo on what he'd like to see in Smolder (szabgab.com)
• "Warming up to modular testing" slides from YAPC::NA available (use.perl.org)
• "Perl does not belong to DarkPAN. It belongs to us who participate in its wellbeing." (perl-yarg.blogspot.com)
• Fitting Wikipedia on an iPhone (radar.oreilly.com)
• What is Catalyst, really? (blog.urth.org)
• Hard numbers on test-driven development (use.perl.org)
• PHP does not make programming simpler. It just pretends that programming is simpler than it is. (use.perl.org)
• A WebGUI editing plugin for Padre (blog.patspam.com)
• Recap of the Portland.PM code sprint get-together (baconandtech.com)
• More notes from the Portland PM code sprint (justatheory.com)
• Perl Corehackers wiki now online (corehackers.perl.org)
• Josh Ben Jore's first Perl 6 program (use.perl.org)

Each year, Google Summer of Code puts hundreds of students to work on open source projects, and pays them for it. The Perl Foundation is proud to announce that it has been accepted as a sponsoring organization this year.

Students propose projects that they'd like to have funded, and are assigned a mentor who will help guide the student and project to completion. For students, this is a great way to contribute to open source, get experience working on real projects that you can put on a resume, and get paid for it. You'll be helping open source while helping yourself. For mentors, you'll also be helping open source, and helping a new programmer get his or her start.

Jonathan Leto's blog has links to find out more.

I don't see having an autoposting widget for Perlbuzz any time soon, so if you want these more current, keep an eye on the Perlbuzz Twitter account directly.

• Curing cancer with Perl http://tinyurl.com/ck9ark
• Hendrik Van Belleghem interviewed about his Spine CMS http://tinyurl.com/dxkb9d
• Sure looks like Twitter is a Perl shop http://tinyurl.com/ap93c7 http://twitter.com/about#contact
• Why do I think Twitter is a Perl shop? The shelf of blue Perl books! http://tinyurl.com/ap93c7
• Moritz has put up a page giving the status of Rakudo development! Very nice! http://rakudo.org/status
• Firing up @TheWorkingGeek again, both on Twitter and at http://theworkinggeek.com/
• Fixing old bugs in Perl::Critic::Bangs and Template::Timer http://tinyurl.com/ccn6ve
• Organize your test suites with Test::Class http://tinyurl.com/ap4g2p
• RT @chromatic_x There are 805 Test::* modules on CPAN http://perlmonks.org/?node_id=749581
• Gabor Szabo launches Perl 6 Tricks and Treats newsletter http://use.perl.org/~gabor/journal/38629
• Perl tips: Tricks with arrays and hashes http://tinyurl.com/btw6kg
• Vancouver.pm is alive and kicking http://tinyurl.com/bwgpfv
• Cool Twitterer of the day: [@perloneliner](http://twitter.com/perloneliner)
• Parrot 1.0 is less than a week away, on March 17th. http://tinyurl.com/dc88qf
• Top Seven (Bad) Reasons Not To Use Modules http://perlmonks.org/?node_id=750190
• Parrot Virtual Machine Workshop 2009, June 20 & 21 http://tinyurl.com/btmvd8
• YAPC|10 is only $99 for the next 10 days http://tinyurl.com/cjyg3n
• Tutorial and FAQ for PIR, Parrot Intermediate Representation http://tinyurl.com/5mhdqv
• Working with Test::Class test suites http://tinyurl.com/c46bar
• Rakudo Perl 6 dev release #15 "Oslo" released http://tinyurl.com/dkozfw

It's a big day for Perl 6, for Parrot 1.0 has been released. Parrot is the virtual machine on which Rakudo Perl is being built. Parrot 1.0 means a more stable platform on which the Rakudo builders can continue their implementation of Perl 6.

We're getting closer and closer to the top of the hill!

At the first Parrot Developer Summit in Mountain View, CA, core Parrot developers got together and worked on the plan for Parrot language, including a release schedule for the next three years. From the summary posted by Allison Randal:

• March 2009, 1.0, stable API for language developers
• July 2009, 1.5, integration
• January 2010, 2.0, production use
• July 2010, 2.5, portability
• January 2011, 3.0, independence
• July 2011, 3.5, green fields

Very cool that they'll be stabilizing the API so that language development can have a solid base to work with. I'm just a little disappointed that "production use" is 14 months away. Does that mean that the soonest Rakudo will be available for "production use" will be January 2010?

The Parrot folks announced that the BBC was now on its advisory board, and it makes me happy to see. It's good to have big players in the Perl world like ActiveState join the advisory board, but I think it will mean much more to the outside world to see organizations outside of the software industry involved.

Thanks to all at the Parrot Foundation for what I'm sure took untold hours of discussion, red tape and finagling.

As a follow-up to the Parrot Foundation's announcement of ActiveState joining the Parrot Foundation advisory board, I talked with Allison Randal about what this means for Parrot.

Andy Lester: ActiveState has joined the Parrot Foundation advisory board. Is there anyone else on this advisory board, or are they a charter member?

Allison Randal: We're in active discussions with several companies, including some that have verbally agreed to join. ActiveState is the first to complete the joining process. (I can't call them a charter member, because they weren't the first to agree to join.)

Andy: How many members do you see on this board eventually?

Allison: Membership will vary from year-to-year, but we'll aim to keep it in the range of 5-10 members.

Andy: Do members try to commit resources, as well? I'm thinking people, not dollars.

Allison: Donations of developer time or other resources aren't required for advisory board membership. I see it as a possibility in the future, but probably after the 1.0 release, when companies are working to maintain production releases of Parrot.

Andy: Is ActiveState going to try to get some developers on here, required or no?

Allison: It's not something we've discussed.

Andy: Are there any current or past Parrot developers at ActiveState?

Allison: Not as far as I know, but I don't know all the dynamic language developers currently working at ActiveState.

Andy: Are there other organizations coming up on the advisory board? In talks with anyone? Any upcoming news you can leak? It'll be just between you, me and Perlbuzz readership.

Allison: There are other organizations coming up, nothing I can leak yet, but I'll let you know when I can.

Andy: Initials? Geographic location? Anyone in Washington state?

Allison: No comment. :-)

Andy: Anything else you'd like to let us know?

Allison: Join us for the Parrot Developer Summit, November 15th and 16th in Mountain View, CA.

Andy: What will be happening there? Is it mostly a big hackathon?

Allison: We'll be kicking off the final stages to the 1.0 release. It's also a gathering point for language developers.

Andy: Thanks for the time, Allison.

Allison Randal sent me this press release:

ActiveState, commercial provider of tools and support for dynamic languages, has joined the Parrot Foundation's advisory board.

The Parrot Foundation advisory board is made up of a select group of companies who can offer perspective and experience on the current and future applications of the Parrot virtual machine and related language implementations. The advisory board is a channel for its members to share in the development of the project and contribute feedback on features, languages, and tools to aid in focusing development efforts on areas of greatest impact.

"ActiveState has been working successfully with dynamic languages and the various communities for over 10 years ," said Bart Copeland, CEO of ActiveState. "Our company was built on open source and we're proud to support the Parrot Foundation as a member of the advisory board."

Allison Randal, chairman of the Parrot Foundation, added, "ActiveState has been a steady community partner to open source dynamic languages like Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, and Tcl. As we prepare for the 1.0 production release of Parrot, we look forward to working with ActiveState, benefiting from their extensive experience supplying enterprise customers with professional solutions for developing and deploying dynamic language applications."

What does this mean for Parrot? Will there be ActiveParrot? Are they going to contribute bodies? I don't know, but I'm going to ask Allison, and if you have questions, I'll round them up and ask her those as well. Ask your questions in the comments and I'll try to get answers within the next week.