A new version of the documentation for using xsubs in perl extension code is part of the Perl 5.43.6 devel-branch package.

This is news from Reddit r/perl yesterday and also mentioned at TPF and I think it's significant enough to have a mention here at Perlmonks too.

r/perl user Grinnz posted:

David Mitchell completely rewrote the perlxs reference manual for the XS language for extending Perl in C. The rewritten version was just released in the development release 5.43.6 and will be included in the next stable release of Perl.

I used pod2pdf to generate a PDF version of the document* once I'd built 5.43.6 (using perlbrew btw) and it's 77 pages in US-Letter size format. I didn't check for the length of the previous version of perlxs.pod but 77 pages is a small book; this is not a minor achievement but rather a significant contribution of the sort that does not always get the recognition and accolades it deserves.

* I put it in my Google Drive, hopefully I've got the settings right so that you should be able to download it from there. sorry, Google Drive doesn't work that way. Or just run pod2pdf on the pod yourself, of course–it's not a difficult tool to use).

Edit Again

Should have listened to my first vague recollection of how Google Drive works. Yes, it can serve as a file-sharing system if the right settings are enabled. Now they are—now anyone with the URL should be able to view / download the PDF file in the link above.

Dec 23, 2025 at 16:10 UTC

A just machine to make big decisions
Programmed by fellows (and gals) with compassion and vision
We'll be clean when their work is done
We'll be eternally free yes, and eternally young
Donald Fagen —> I.G.Y.
(Slightly modified for inclusiveness)

In reply to A modernization of the canonical doc for learning XS by Intrepid

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