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Re: [perl #116961] Data::Dumper 2.143 tests failures on 5.10.1

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From:
Karl Williamson
Date:
March 8, 2013 18:43
Subject:
Re: [perl #116961] Data::Dumper 2.143 tests failures on 5.10.1
Message ID:
513A315A.30505@khwilliamson.com
On 03/08/2013 10:17 AM, Peter Rabbitson wrote:
> On Fri, Mar 08, 2013 at 10:08:43AM -0700, Karl Williamson wrote:
>> --- a/dist/Data-Dumper/Dumper.xs
>> +++ b/dist/Data-Dumper/Dumper.xs
>> @@ -12,6 +12,10 @@
>>   #  define DD_USE_OLD_ID_FORMAT
>>   #endif
>>
>> +#ifndef isWORDCHAR
>> +#   define isWORDCHAR(c) isALNUM(c)
>> +#endif
>> +
>>   static I32 num_q (const char *s, STRLEN slen);
>>   static I32 esc_q (char *dest, const char *src, STRLEN slen);
>>   static I32 esc_q_utf8 (pTHX_ SV *sv, const char *src, STRLEN slen);
>
> I find it ironic that what I said here [1] turned out to be 100%
> correct. So now we have a ton of time wasted by Jim Keenan and tests
> rewritten for no reason other than possibly introducing extra bugs to
> them. Way to go :(
>
> [1] http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/03/msg199881.html
>


I am the one who broke it in the first place, and you were right that 
that person could simply add an #ifdef in the right place.

The reason I didn't notice that I was the culprit is because of the 
leading underscore in the error message.  I knew I hadn't done that. 
Yesterday on #irc, someone pointed out that that the underscore might be 
added by some C compilers; something I didn't know.

My point is that we all come here with varying skill sets and knowledge; 
and no one knows it all.  Hopefully we learn from our and others' 
mistakes, and we make fewer over time.

I made the change that broke D:D for older Perls.  I did not realize 
there was an issue in patching a core module in that it could be 
dual-lived.  perlhack does not address the issue.  Our documentation 
needs to be updated about this; I don't know what it should say. 
Suggestions welcome.

I haven't been following this thread, because it is out of my area of 
expertise, so I don't understand the issues, and don't have an opinion 
on what is best.  I do believe that your statement "Way to go" is 
demotivating of people who have worked on it, and was unnecessary and 
anti-constructive.

One lesson that could be learned from this is to use Nicholas Clark's 
bisect tool early.  That would have pinned me as the culprit, and I 
would have gotten involved then.  I suspect that you have enough 
expertise so that you could have done that yourself.

Karl Williamson

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