The domestic cat is a contradiction. No animal has developed such an intimate relationship with mankind, while at the same time demanding and getting such independence of movement and action. The dog may be man's best friend, but it is rarely allowed out on its own to wander from garden to garden or street to street. The obedient dog has to be taken for a walk. The headstrong cat walks alone. -- Desmond Morris, "Catwatching: The Essential Guide to Cat Behaviour" We are delighted to announce the first release candidate of version 24.4, the fourth maintenance release of version 24 of Perl 5. You will soon be able to download Perl 5.24.4-RC1 from your favourite CPAN mirror or find it at: https://metacpan.org/release/SHAY/perl-5.24.4-RC1/ SHA1 digests for this release are: 9d1dd485ef4695d85fb135cdd945f0969ae74107 perl-5.24.4-RC1.tar.gz 552e9c353c56ea332830eae3d01946c1f5c5f2b5 perl-5.24.4-RC1.tar.bz2 0f2642815f8d64e3b34f01ae8b362423f5d3b177 perl-5.24.4-RC1.tar.xz You can find a full list of changes in the file "perldelta.pod" located in the "pod" directory inside the release and on the web. ***Please, please, please*** test your code against perl-5.24.4-RC1. This is your last chance to point out any critical regressions before v5.24.4 ships "for real," and we'd rather fix things for v5.24.4 than for v5.24.5! The final v5.24.4 is expected to ship on April 14th. Steve Hay