Editing Perl (section)

===2000–2020===
{| class="wikitable floatright"
|-
! Major version<ref name="perlhist"/>
! Latest update<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.cpan.org/src/README.html |title=Perl Source |publisher=cpan.org |access-date=2023-11-26}}</ref>
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| {{Version|o|5.4}}
| 1999-04-29
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| {{Version|o|5.5}}
| 2004-02-23
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| {{Version|o|5.6}}
| 2003-11-15
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| {{Version|o|5.8}}
| 2008-12-14
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| {{Version|o|5.10}}
| 2009-08-22
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| {{Version|o|5.12}}
| 2012-11-10
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| {{Version|o|5.14}}
| 2013-03-10
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| {{Version|o|5.16}}
| 2013-03-11
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| {{Version|o|5.18}}
| 2014-10-01
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| {{Version|o|5.20}}
| 2015-09-12
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| {{Version|o|5.22}}
| 2017-07-15
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| {{Version|o|5.24}}
| 2018-04-14
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| {{Version|o|5.26}}
| 2018-11-29
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| {{Version|o|5.28}}
| 2020-06-01
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| {{Version|o|5.30}}
| 2020-06-01
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| {{Version|o|5.32}}
| 2021-01-23
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| {{Version|o|5.34}}
| 2023-11-29
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| {{Version|o|5.36}}
| 2023-11-29
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| {{Version|co|5.38}}
| 2025-01-18
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| {{Version|c|5.40}}
| 2025-01-18
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| colspan="99" |<small>{{Version|lv|show=011111|}}</small>
|}
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Perl 5.6 was released on March 22, 2000. Major changes included [[64-bit computing|64-bit]] support, [[Unicode]] string representation, support for files over 2 GiB, and the "our" keyword.<ref name="56delta">{{cite web |url=http://perldoc.perl.org/perl56delta.html |title=perl56delta - what's new for perl v5.6.0 |access-date=2011-01-21 |work=Perl 5 version 12.2 documentation |publisher=perldoc.perl.org |archive-date=February 2, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110202135358/http://perldoc.perl.org/perl56delta.html |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="561delta">{{cite web |url=http://perldoc.perl.org/perl561delta.html |title=perl56delta - what's new for perl v5.6.x |access-date=2011-01-21 |work=Perl 5 version 12.2 documentation |publisher=perldoc.perl.org |archive-date=November 18, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101118101544/http://perldoc.perl.org/perl561delta.html |url-status=live}}</ref> When developing Perl 5.6, the decision was made to switch the [[software versioning|versioning]] scheme to one more similar to other open source projects; after 5.005_63, the next version became 5.5.640, with plans for development versions to have odd numbers and stable versions to have even numbers.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Perl {{!}} Definition, History, & Facts {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/technology/Perl |access-date=2022-06-15 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>

In 2000, Wall put forth a call for suggestions for a new version of Perl from the community. The process resulted in 361 RFC ([[Request for Comments]]) documents that were to be used in guiding development of Perl 6. In 2001,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://dev.perl.org/perl6/doc/design/apo/A01.html |title=Apocalypse 1: The Ugly, the Bad, and the Good |access-date=2011-01-08 |last=Wall |first=Larry |archive-date=November 23, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101123182201/http://dev.perl.org/perl6/doc/design/apo/A01.html |url-status=dead}}</ref> work began on the "Apocalypses" for Perl 6, a series of documents meant to summarize the change requests and present the design of the next generation of Perl. They were presented as a digest of the RFCs, rather than a formal document. At this time, Perl 6 existed only as a description of a language.{{Citation needed|date=December 2020}}

Perl 5.8 was first released on July 18, 2002, and further 5.X versions have been released approximately yearly since then. Perl 5.8 improved Unicode support, added a new I/O implementation, added a new thread implementation, improved numeric accuracy, and added several new modules.<ref name="perl58delta">{{cite web |url=http://perldoc.perl.org/perl58delta.html |title=perl58delta - what is new for perl v5.8.0 |access-date=2011-01-21 |work=Perl 5 version 12.2 documentation |publisher=perldoc.perl.org |archive-date=November 21, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101121023149/http://perldoc.perl.org/perl58delta.html |url-status=live}}</ref> As of 2013, this version was still the most popular Perl version and was used by [[Red Hat]] [[Linux]] 5, [[SUSE Linux]] 10, [[Oracle Solaris|Solaris]] 10, [[HP-UX]] 11.31, and [[IBM AIX|AIX]] 5.

In 2004, work began on the "Synopses" – documents that originally summarized the Apocalypses, but which became the specification for the Perl 6 language. In February 2005, [[Audrey Tang]] began work on [[Pugs (compiler)|Pugs]], a Perl 6 interpreter written in [[Haskell]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2005/03/03/pugs_interview.html |title=A Plan for Pugs |date=2005-03-03 |publisher=[[O'Reilly Media]] |access-date=2011-01-27 |archive-date=September 8, 2012 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120908200150/http://www.perl.com/pub/2005/03/03/pugs_interview.html |url-status=live}}</ref> This was the first concerted effort toward making Perl 6 a reality. This effort stalled in 2006.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.perlmonks.org/?node_id=835936 |title=Re: How to Implement Perl 6 in Ten Years |access-date=2011-01-03 |last=Tang |first=Audrey |date=2010-04-21 |publisher=[[PerlMonks]] |archive-date=May 11, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511190417/http://www.perlmonks.org/?node_id=835936 |url-status=live}}</ref>

The Perl On New Internal Engine (PONIE) project existed from 2003 until 2006. It was to be a bridge between Perl 5 and 6, and an effort to rewrite the Perl 5 interpreter to run on the Perl 6 [[Parrot virtual machine]]. The goal was to ensure the future of the millions of lines of Perl 5 code at thousands of companies around the world.<ref>{{citation|last1=Broadwell|first1=Geoff|date=August 8, 2005<!-- 8:52PM -->|title=OSCON 4.4: Inside Ponie, the Bridge from Perl 5 to Perl 6|url=http://www.oreillynet.com/onlamp/blog/2005/08/oscon_44_inside_ponie_the_brid.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120314013450/http://www.oreillynet.com/onlamp/blog/2005/08/oscon_44_inside_ponie_the_brid.html|publisher=O'Reilly ONLamp Blog|access-date=June 27, 2016|archive-date=March 14, 2012|url-status=live}}</ref> The PONIE project ended in 2006 and is no longer being actively developed. Some of the improvements made to the Perl 5 interpreter as part of PONIE were folded into that project.<ref>{{citation|last1=Vincent|first1=Jesse|author1-link=Jesse Vincent|title=Ponie has been put out to pasture|date=August 23, 2006<!-- 10:40 PM -->|url=http://news.perlfoundation.org/2006/08/ponie_has_been_put_out_to_past.html|df=mdy-all|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090627091007/http://news.perlfoundation.org/2006/08/ponie_has_been_put_out_to_past.html|publisher=The Perl Foundation|access-date=January 15, 2019|archive-date=June 27, 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref>

On December 18, 2007, the 20th anniversary of Perl 1.0, Perl 5.10.0 was released. Perl 5.10.0 included notable new features, which brought it closer to Perl 6. These included a [[switch statement]] (called "given"/"when"), regular expressions updates, and the ''smart match operator'' (~~).<ref name="5100delta">{{cite web |url=http://perldoc.perl.org/perl5100delta.html |title=perl5100delta - what is new for perl 5.10.0 |access-date=2011-01-08 |work=Perl 5 version 12.2 documentation |publisher=perldoc.perl.org |archive-date=December 21, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101221024004/http://perldoc.perl.org/perl5100delta.html |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="perlsyn-smart">{{cite web |url=http://perldoc.perl.org/perlsyn.html#Smart-matching-in-detail |title=perlsyn - Perl syntax |access-date=2011-01-21 |work=Perl 5 version 12.2 documentation |publisher=perldoc.perl.org |archive-date=August 26, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130826100652/http://perldoc.perl.org/perlsyn.html#Smart-matching-in-detail |url-status=live}}</ref>
Around this same time, development began in earnest on another implementation of Perl 6 known as [[Rakudo]] Perl, developed in tandem with the [[Parrot virtual machine]]. As of November 2009, Rakudo Perl has had regular monthly releases and now is the most complete implementation of Perl 6.

A major change in the development process of Perl 5 occurred with Perl 5.11; the development community has switched to a monthly release cycle of development releases, with a yearly schedule of stable releases. By that plan, bugfix point releases will follow the stable releases every three months.{{Citation needed|date=December 2020}}

On April 12, 2010, Perl 5.12.0 was released. Notable core enhancements include new <code>package NAME VERSION</code> syntax, the [[Ellipsis (computer programming)#yadayada|yada yada operator]] (intended to mark placeholder code that is not yet implemented), implicit {{Not a typo|strictures}}, full [[Y2038]] compliance, regex conversion overloading, [[DTrace]] support, and [[Unicode]] 5.2.<ref name="5120delta">{{cite web |url=http://perldoc.perl.org/perl5120delta.html |title=perl5120delta - what is new for perl v5.12.0 |access-date=2011-01-08 |work=Perl 5 version 12.2 documentation |publisher=perldoc.perl.org |archive-date=January 4, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110104093548/http://perldoc.perl.org/perl5120delta.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

On May 14, 2011, Perl 5.14 was released with [[JSON]] support built-in.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://metacpan.org/pod/distribution/perl/pod/perl5140delta.pod|title=perl5140delta - what is new for perl v5.14.0 - metacpan.org|website=metacpan.org|access-date=July 22, 2017|archive-date=July 25, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180725004523/https://metacpan.org/pod/distribution/perl/pod/perl5140delta.pod|url-status=live}}</ref>

On May 20, 2012, Perl 5.16 was released. Notable new features include the ability to specify a given version of Perl that one wishes to emulate, allowing users to upgrade their version of Perl, but still run old scripts that would normally be incompatible.<ref name="5160delta_version">{{cite web |url=https://perldoc.perl.org/perl5160delta |title=perl5160delta - what is new for perl v5.16.0 |access-date=2012-05-21 |website=perldoc.perl.org}}</ref>{{Failed verification|date=June 2022}} Perl 5.16 also updates the core to support [[Unicode]] 6.1.<ref name="5160delta_version"/>

On May 18, 2013, Perl 5.18 was released. Notable new features include the new dtrace hooks, lexical subs, more CORE:: subs, overhaul of the hash for security reasons, support for Unicode 6.2.<ref name="5180delta_version">{{cite web |url=https://metacpan.org/pod/release/RJBS/perl-5.18.1/pod/perl5180delta.pod |title=perl5180delta - what is new for perl v5.18.0 - Perl programming language |access-date=2013-10-27 |work=Perl 5 version 18.0 documentation |publisher=metacpan.org |archive-date=October 29, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029224638/https://metacpan.org/pod/release/RJBS/perl-5.18.1/pod/perl5180delta.pod |url-status=live}}</ref>

On May 27, 2014, Perl 5.20 was released. Notable new features include subroutine signatures, hash slices/new slice syntax, postfix dereferencing (experimental), Unicode 6.3, and a {{Not a typo|rand()}} function using a consistent random number generator.<ref name="5200delta_version">{{cite web |url=https://metacpan.org/source/RJBS/perl-5.20.0/pod/perldelta.pod |title=perl5200delta - what is new for perl v5.20.0 - Perl programming language |access-date=2014-05-27 |work=Perl 5 version 20.0 documentation |publisher=metacpan.org |archive-date=May 27, 2014 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20140527190905/https://metacpan.org/source/RJBS/perl-5.20.0/pod/perldelta.pod |url-status=live}}</ref>

Some observers credit the release of Perl 5.10 with the start of the Modern Perl movement.<ref>[http://www.modernperlbooks.com/mt/2009/07/milestones-in-the-perl-renaissance.html Milestones in the Perl Renaissance – Modern Perl Programming] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121027105918/http://www.modernperlbooks.com/mt/2009/07/milestones-in-the-perl-renaissance.html |date=October 27, 2012}}. Modernperlbooks.com. Retrieved on 2013-07-17.</ref> In particular, this phrase describes a style of development that embraces the use of the CPAN, takes advantage of recent developments in the language, and is rigorous about creating high quality code.<ref>[http://modernperlbooks.com/books/modern_perl/ Preface (Modern Perl 2011-2012)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120928232457/http://modernperlbooks.com/books/modern_perl/ |date=September 28, 2012}}. Modernperlbooks.com. Retrieved on 2013-07-17.</ref> While the book ''Modern Perl''<ref>[http://onyxneon.com/books/modern_perl/ Modern Perl 2011-2012 edition by chromatic |Onyx Neon Press] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111222045417/http://onyxneon.com/books/modern_perl/ |date=December 22, 2011}}. Onyxneon.com. Retrieved on 2013-07-17.</ref> may be the most visible standard-bearer of this idea, other groups such as the Enlightened Perl Organization<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.enlightenedperl.org/|title=Enlightened Perl|website=Enlightened Perl|access-date=September 28, 2012|archive-date=February 5, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140205015536/http://www.enlightenedperl.org/|url-status=dead}}</ref> have taken up the cause.

In late 2012 and 2013, several projects for alternative implementations for Perl 5 started: Perl5 in [[Raku (programming language)|Perl6]] by the Rakudo Perl team,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.yapcna.org/yn2013/talk/4725 |title=YAPC::NA 2013 – June 3–5, Austin, Texas |publisher=Yapcna.org |date=2013-06-04 |access-date=2014-04-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130622201417/http://www.yapcna.org/yn2013/talk/4725 |archive-date=June 22, 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref> ''{{Not a typo|moe}}'' by Stevan Little and friends,<ref>{{cite web |last=Little |first=Stevan |url=http://blogs.perl.org/users/stevan_little/2013/02/what-is-moe-a-clarification.html |title=What is Moe (a clarification) &#124; Stevan Little |publisher=Blogs.perl.org |date=2013-02-08 |access-date=2014-04-11 |archive-date=December 19, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131219185710/http://blogs.perl.org/users/stevan_little/2013/02/what-is-moe-a-clarification.html |url-status=live}}</ref> ''{{Not a typo|p2}}''<ref>{{cite web |url=http://perl11.org/p2/ |title=p2 on potion |publisher=Perl11.org |date=2004-02-07 |access-date=2014-04-11 |archive-date=September 24, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130924023845/http://perl11.org/p2/ |url-status=live}}</ref> by the Perl11 team under Reini Urban, ''{{Not a typo|gperl}}'' by {{Not a typo|goccy}},<ref>{{cite web |url=https://github.com/goccy/gperl/ |title=goccy/gperl 路 GitHub |publisher=GitHub.com |access-date=2014-04-11 |archive-date=February 23, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150223170215/https://github.com/goccy/gperl |url-status=live}}</ref> and ''{{Not a typo|rperl}},'' a Kickstarter project led by Will Braswell and affiliated with the Perl11 project.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://rperl.org/faq.html |title=rperl |publisher=RPerl.org |access-date=2014-08-11 |archive-date=October 18, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141018002115/http://rperl.org/faq.html |url-status=live}}</ref>