Deprecation of v-strings

I've been trying to get back into the version/v-string mode after a while 
getting my subversion/svk repositories /just right/.  I am strongly considering 
recommending that v-strings _not_ be deprecated now, or ever, in Perl5.  The 
deeper I get into the guts, the less I like throwing warnings into the code.

With the magic v-string patch in place, v-strings are largely defanged (i.e. you 
can recover from the transformation in XS at least), so that they are "Mostly 
harmless."  When/if I complete the version object integration, there will be 
less need to worry about v-strings being used for $VERSION initialization. 
v-strings could continue to be used for arbitrary bytestring (UTF) code without 
any real harm being done.

I could produce a 'magic v-string' patch for 5.6.3-to be (if anyone one is 
serious about doing that), so we could say "most recent release in each branch > 
5.6.x contains safe v-string's" and do it with a straight face.

Comments?  Rotten eggs?  Bricks?

John

-- 
John Peacock
Director of Information Research and Technology
Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group
4501 Forbes Boulevard
Suite H
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301-459-3366 x.5010
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• Deprecation of v-strings by John Peacock
• Re: Deprecation of v-strings by Rafael Garcia-Suarez