Parrot Status Update

virtual machine for scripting languages

In July and August, we had our monthly releases of Parrot, 0.4.14 and 0.4.15. There were various language updates, but one of these deserves special mention. The 0.4.15 release included an implementation of "Not Quite Perl". This language implements a subset of the full Perl 6 feature set, and will be used within the compiler tools for all languages running on Parrot, and as a way to bootstrap a complete Perl 6 implementation.

The 0.4.14 release included a lot of code cleanup, correcting problems found by automated tools such as lint. 0.4.15 included a refactoring of the configuration system.

On the design side, the Object (PDD15) and PMC designs (PDD17) have both received some updates, and 0.4.15 included more implementation work on the object metamodel as described in the object design.

Allison Randal led a one-day Parrot hackathon at the recent YAPC::EU conference in Vienna. At the hackathon they provided training to new Parrot developers, prototyped the next stage of development for Parrot's Tree Grammar Engine, planned the steps for finishing off milestone 3 for the OO subsystem, and made valuable progress on bug ticket review and resolution.

Allison has also created a schedule for completing the remainder of the first two Parrot milestones. To further this work, she will be working Parrot full-time through December, and half-time next year. The first deadline on this schedule was for the completion of the PMC design by September 15, which Allison has reached.

As a director of the Perl Foundation, Allison is not eligible for direct grant payments. Instead, the grant payment for the PMC design work will go to purchase a development machine for her to use while working on Parrot.

Dave Rolsky
Parrot Grant Manager
Perl Foundation