=item deprecated
If something in the Perl core is marked as B<deprecated>, we may remove it
-from the core in the next stable release series, though we may not. As of
+from the core in the future, though we might not. Generally, backward
+incompatible changes will have deprecation warnings for two release
+cycles before being removed, but may be removed after just one cycle if
+the risk seems quite low or the benefits quite high.
+
+As of
Perl 5.12, deprecated features and modules warn the user as they're used.
When a module is deprecated, it will also be made available on CPAN.
Installing it from CPAN will silence deprecation warnings for that module.
From time to time, we may mark language constructs and features which we
consider to have been mistakes as B<discouraged>. Discouraged features
-aren't candidates for removal in the next major release series, but
+aren't currently candidates for removal, but
we may later deprecate them if they're found to stand in the way of a
significant improvement to the Perl core.
=item removed
-Once a feature, construct or module has been marked as deprecated for a
-stable release cycle, we may remove it from the Perl core. Unsurprisingly,
+Once a feature, construct or module has been marked as deprecated, we
+may remove it from the Perl core. Unsurprisingly,
we say we've B<removed> these things. When a module is removed, it will
no longer ship with Perl, but will continue to be available on CPAN.