Since participating in Hackathon Chicago, Jim Keenan has been working on refactoring those Parrot configuration and build tools written in Perl 5. The refactoring is being done along Phalanx lines: write tests, do coverage analysis, refactor code, repeat. Jim invites you to join him in this project, which requires only Perl 5.

A good idea of what we'll be working on can be gleaned from browsing these Parrot RT tickets (listed in reverse chronological order, which is not necessarily the order of importance):

• [perl #42690] [TODO] optionally run configure/build tests during config process
• [perl #42609] [BUG] make html vs. DEVELOPING
• [perl #42563] Makefile.PL dies in an ugly way when compiler not found Researched; no patch yet
• [perl #42429] [BUG]: docs/submission.pod: Confusing use of term 'test' PATCH SUBMITTED
• [perl #42427] [CAGE] cleanup perlcritic errors
• [perl #42412] Configure.pl things =no is true Researched; no patch yet
• [perl #41912] [CAGE] survey tools/ dir for unused, old, or broken code, and remove or fix as necessary TICKET UPDATED
• [perl #42362] [TODO]: Unit tests for modules used during configuration
• [perl #42360] [TODO]: Unit tests for Parrot::Revision Researched; no patch yet
• [perl #42339] [CAGE] Test Valid and Invalid Parrot Flags
• [perl #42330] [BUG]: New warning during 'make': 'MAX' redefined
• [perl #42293] t/doc/pod.t vs. tools/doc/pod_errors.pl
• [perl #42072] [BUG]: pmc2c.pl: Does anyone (know how to) use the 'no-body' option? RESOLVED
• [perl #42040] tools/dev/mk_manifest_and_skip.pl doesn't pick up files that are marked svn deleted but not yet committed
• [perl #41915] [TODO] remove unused manifest-generating scripts
• [perl #41201] [TODO] Remove temporary conf hack in Configure.pl RESOLVED
• [perl #41886] [CAGE] Use lcov to show code coverage
• [perl #39823] [CAGE] tools/dev/run_indent.pl -- this should be a test
• [perl #41897] [BUG]: Parrot::Pmc2c::STMRef gets 'subroutine prederef redefined' warning
• [perl #41895] [TODO] Use Getopt for argument parsing in perlcritic.t TICKET UPDATED
• [perl #41695] [CAGE]: Refactor Parrot::Distribution
• [perl #41611] [TODO] Write a test for is_perl_exemption() RESOLVED outside of Hackathon
• [perl #41186] [BUG]: tools/build/ops2pm.pl: Variable used in both package scope and loop iteration RESOLVED