NAME
    perldelta - what is new for perl v5.8.1

DESCRIPTION
    This document describes differences between the 5.8.0 release and the
    5.8.1 release.

Incompatible Changes
Core Enhancements
    Tied Arrays with Negative Array Indices

    Formerly, the indices passed to "FETCH", "STORE", "EXISTS", and
    "DELETE" methods in tied array class were always non-negative. If the
    actual argument was negative, Perl would call FETCHSIZE implicitly and
    add the result to the index before passing the result to the tied array
    method. This behavior is now optional. If the tied array class con-
    tains a package variable named $NEGATIVE_INDICES which is set to a true
    value, negative values will be passed to "FETCH", "STORE", "EXISTS",
    and "DELETE" unchanged.

    Warnings

    Perl 5.8.0 forgot to add some deprecation warnings. These warnings
    have now been added.

    Pseudo-hashes really are deprecated

    Pseudo-hashes were deprecated in Perl 5.8.0 and will be removed in Perl
    5.10.0, see perl58delta for details. Each attempt to access pseudo-
    hashes will trigger the warning "Pseudo-hashes are deprecated". If you
    really want to continue using pseudo-hashes but not to see the depreca-
    tion warnings, add:

   no warnings 'deprecated';

    5.005-style threads really are deprecated

    5.005-style threads (activated by "use Thread;") were deprecated in
    Perl 5.8.0 and will be removed in Perl 5.10.0, see perl58delta for
    details.  Each attempt to create a 5.005-style thread will trigger the
    warning "5.005 threads are deprecated". If you really want to continue
    using 5.005 threads but not to see the deprecation warnings, add:

   no warnings 'deprecated';

Modules and Pragmata
Utility Changes
New Documentation
Performance Enhancements
Installation and Configuration Improvements
Selected Bug Fixes
New or Changed Diagnostics
Changed Internals
New Tests
Known Problems
Platform Specific Problems
Reporting Bugs
    If you find what you think is a bug, you might check the articles
    recently posted to the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup and the perl bug
    database at http://bugs.perl.org/ . There may also be information at
    http://www.perl.com/ , the Perl Home Page.

    If you believe you have an unreported bug, please run the perlbug pro-
    gram included with your release.  Be sure to trim your bug down to a
    tiny but sufficient test case. Your bug report, along with the output
    of "perl -V", will be sent off to perlbug@perl.org to be analysed by
    the Perl porting team.

SEE ALSO
    The Changes file for exhaustive details on what changed.

    The INSTALL file for how to build Perl.

    The README file for general stuff.

    The Artistic and Copying files for copyright information.