Re: Will 'when()' be removed or deprecated in upcoming version of Perl?

[kcott]

G'day Darkwing,

"Now this page Beware of the removal of when in Perl v5.28 tells that when() will be removed in perl 5.28, ..."

Well, it doesn't actually say it will be removed, rather to beware of its removal. Yes, I know, it's a subtle distinction.

If you look at the abstract, you'll see "... I haven’t seen an official notice ...", followed by "... by popular outcry these changes won’t be in v5.28.". Also note that the article is about six months old.

Perl 5.28 is currently at RC4 (RC=Release Candidate), and when is still there. I would, however, draw your attention to "perlsyn: Experimental Details on given and when" (from 5.28-RC4). Note phrases like "highly experimental" and "subject to change with little notice" whilst reading that section.

At the end of the day, you shouldn't be using any experimental features in production code. Of course, this particular feature is a little tricky in that regard. It was introduced in 5.10 and many, myself included, used it. But, in 5.18 it was made experimental: "perl5180delta: The smartmatch family of features are now experimental".

I'd advise not using it in any commercial or production grade code; and being aware of potential problems when using it elsewhere.