Perl 🐪 Weekly #758 - PTS 2026

Source: Dev.to

Introduction

The upcoming Perl Toolchain Summit (PTS) in Vienna is more than just a conference – it’s a pivotal event for maintaining, discussing, and improving the CPAN toolchain, the fundamental foundation of the Perl ecosystem.

Through their commitment to volunteerism, the volunteers who attend this gathering contribute significant personal time and expertise to support the broader Perl community, benefiting every person and company that uses Perl.

“Pay It Forward” Sponsorship Model

A recent article by Philippe Bruhat reports on the true cost associated with collaborating to support the PTS. The article proposes a new paradigm for companies that wish to sponsor employees attending on paid time:

Consider “paying it forward.”
Estimate the cost of your employee’s participation and provide that amount to the PTS as a monetary sponsorship. By doubling your company’s investment, you directly fund another deserving attendee, increasing the overall impact of the summit.

Why It Works

• Ripple Effect: The model expands funding to a more diverse, larger pool of contributors, supporting the continued viability and innovation of the tools relied upon by everyone in the community.
• Strategic Investment: It isn’t merely charity; it’s a wise business strategy that invests in the foundation of the Perl community.
• Visibility: Companies gain recognition as true community supporters while helping the PTS remain an innovative, viable engine that keeps Perl competitive.

Let’s continue to support those who also support us.

Personal Experience

Last year I was lucky enough to attend the event after receiving a surprise invitation from the organizers. From that experience I can say it was the best Perl event I have ever attended. Contributing in any small way felt great and made the trip worthwhile.

One of the highlights was observing how committed the top individuals in the Perl community were. They worked together on multiple projects simultaneously, with maximum efficiency, to achieve as much as possible during the event.

Keep your spirits up and stay healthy. Enjoy the rest of the newsletter!

Upcoming Meeting

Sydney February Meeting – 2025

Sydney Perl continues regular meetings, with the next one in February.

This Week in PSC (213) – 2026‑01‑26

• Perl Steering Council: Discussing improvements to Perl’s random number generator and integrating TLS functionality into the core.
• A New Sponsorship Model: Encouraging employers sending staff to the 2026 Perl Toolchain Summit to “pay it forward” by providing monetary sponsorship for other attendees.
• ANNOUNCE: Perl.Wiki v 1.39 & Mojolicious.Wiki v 1.13

Articles

What I Learned from Being an Editor/Reviewer for the 2025 Perl Advent Calendar

Marc reflects on his wonderful experience reviewing for the Perl Advent Calendar 2025. He notes that writing and editing articles about other people’s work, and working with CPAN, taught him about many new modules and rekindled his interest in community activities such as The Weekly Perl Challenge.

Lock and Unlock a Hash Using Hash::Util

This post demonstrates how to use the Hash::Util module’s lock_hash function in Perl to prevent accidental modifications to a hash (no changes, deletions, or new keys). Unlocking the hash with unlock_hash restores mutability, shown with practical code examples.

Podlite Comes to Perl: A Lightweight Block‑Based Markup Language for Everyday Use

The article introduces Podlite, a new lightweight, block‑based markup language that brings the readability and structure of Raku’s documentation format (Pod) to the Perl ecosystem. It highlights three interchangeable block styles for writing documentation within Perl code and announces its availability via a CPAN module.

The Weekly Challenge – $50 Prize

The Weekly Challenge, curated by Mohammad Sajid Anwar, encourages participants to step out of their comfort zone. A $50 prize is awarded each month to a champion, thanks to sponsor Lance Wicks.

The Weekly Challenge – 359

Welcome to a new week with two fun tasks: Digital Root and String Reduction. Newcomers are invited to join and have fun every week. See the FAQ for more information.

RECAP – The Weekly Challenge – 358

A quick recap of last week’s contributions by Team PWC, covering the “Max Str Value” and “Encrypted String” tasks in Perl and Raku. Plenty of solutions are provided to keep you busy.

/Stringed Max

This solution offers an intuitive method for handling both numeric and non‑numeric strings, illustrating Raku’s syntax for pattern matching and type‑converting with cleanly written code.

Perl Weekly Challenge – Week 358

Jaldhar demonstrates both Raku and Perl versions to showcase an accurate solution and language‑specific optimizations (e.g., using map and the modulo operator) in a single line of code.

Maximum Encryption

An in‑depth study of technical solutions where unique implementations are provided for both Perl and Raku.

Solutions & Highlights

Sophisticated Methods

Uses the String::Compile::Tr module to translate from one programming language to another at runtime and explores more unusual “under” conjunctions in J.

Brute‑Force Approach

Explicitly calling methods such as “brute force”, Luca prefers a try‑catch style (as in Java and Python) for converting strings into integers. This is an interesting and practical alternative to the regular‑expression check that most people use.

Perl Weekly Challenge #358

One‑Liner Solution

This blog post offers a concise and efficient one‑liner approach to both tasks of Weekly Challenge 358, with a particular focus on Perl’s command‑line capabilities.

Example Input

nbyqyyefswbuffyhay

Matthias Muth’s Solutions

Exemplary for their elegant use of Perl’s functional features and practical robustness. They achieve maximum effect with minimal code – a hallmark of expert Perl programming.

“It’s What You Value” – Packy’s Solution

Distinctive and highly educational. Provides a comparative study across four languages (Raku, Perl, Python, and Elixir), showcasing how to solve the same problems with each language’s unique idioms and strengths. The author’s thoughtful explanations make it a great learning resource.

“A Number of Strings” – Emphasis on Clarity

Places emphasis on clarity, detail, and practical (real‑life) use of the code rather than clever short phrases. An example of properly designed, production‑focused code.

The Weekly Challenge #358 – Robbie Hatley

Robbie Hatley’s Perl solution employs procedural programming techniques for the two tasks. The approach is reasonable and aligns closely with the specifications given in the problem statement.

Encrypted Max – Practical & Mathematically Careful

The solution stands out for its correctness and safety, especially in how the modulo function and character encodings are handled. A well‑thought‑out and robust implementation.

Maximum Encryption – Simon Green

Stands out for practical efficiency, clear idiomatic code, and a smart pre‑computation strategy that differentiates it from more common inline‑calculation methods.

When Strings Become Numbers and Letters Start Shifting

The main factor separating this solution from others is its pedagogical quality. The explanation of the algorithms (digit validation, ASCII rotation) is clear and demonstrates Perl’s suitability for these tasks. The solution also emphasizes writing testable code.

2026.