Template for rakudo/rakudo release announcement

gistfile1.txt

# Announce: Rakudo Perl 6 compiler, Development Release #NN ("NAME")

On behalf of the Rakudo development team, I'm proud to announce the
MONTH 2013 release of Rakudo Perl #NN "NAME". Rakudo is an
implementation of Perl 6 on the Parrot Virtual Machine (see
<http://www.parrot.org>). The tarball for this release is available
from <http://rakudo.org/downloads/rakudo/>.

Please note: This announcement is not for the Rakudo Star
distribution[^1] --- it's announcing a new release of the compiler
only.  For the latest Rakudo Star release, see
<http://rakudo.org/downloads/star/>.

The Rakudo Perl compiler follows a monthly release cycle, with each
release named after a Perl Mongers group. The MONTH 2013 release is
code-named after PERLMONGERS-GROUP.pm.

Some of the changes in this release are outlined below:

  + "Did you mean ..." suggestions for symbol-not-found errors
  + Compile-time optimization of some cases of junctions in boolean
    context
  + IO::Socket.get now works again with non-Unicode characters
  + constant folding for routines marked as 'is pure'
  + natively typed variables and better error reporting in the REPL
  + speed up eqv-comparison of Bufs
  + warnings for useless use of (some) literals, variables and
    constant expressions in sink context

This is only a small subset of the changes in this release. For a more
detailed list, see "docs/ChangeLog".

The development team thanks all of our contributors and sponsors for
making Rakudo Perl possible, as well as those people who worked on
Parrot, the Perl 6 test suite and the specification.

The following people contributed to this release:
Timo Paulssen, Moritz Lenz, Jonathan Worthington, Tobias Leich, 
Arne Skjærholt, Carl Mäsak, Tadeusz Sośnierz, Will Coleda, 
Christoph Otto and Solomon Foster.

If you would like to contribute, see <http://rakudo.org/how-to-help>,
ask on the <perl6-compiler@perl.org> mailing list, or ask on IRC
\#perl6 on freenode.

The next release of Rakudo (#PP), is scheduled for NEXTMONTH DD, 2013.
A list of the other planned release dates and code names for future
releases is available in the "docs/release_guide.pod" file. In
general, Rakudo development releases are scheduled to occur soon after
each Parrot monthly release.  Parrot releases the third Tuesday of
each month.

On behalf of the development team, I encourage you to try the new release,
to live life to its fullest, to cherish each moment, and to have fun.

[^1]: What's the difference between the Rakudo compiler and the Rakudo
    Star distribution?

    The Rakudo compiler is a compiler for the Perl 6 language.
    Nothing else.

    The Rakudo Star distribution is the Rakudo compiler plus a selection
    of useful Perl 6 modules, the most recent incarnation of the "Using
    Perl 6" book, and other software that can be used with the Rakudo
    compiler to enhance its utility.  Rakudo Star is meant for early
    adopters who wish to explore what's possible with Rakudo Perl 6 and
    provide feedback on what works, what doesn't, and what else they
    would like to see included in the distribution.