On Tue, 7 Jun 2005, Anthony R. Nemmer wrote: > You can get binary distributions from the CPAN site too > (the Perl Ports (Binary Distributions)). Hence my > question. What is the difference between the binary ports > that Activestate provides and the binary ports that CPAN > provides? Over and above the Perl Package Manager and the > Windows-specific modules for the Windows Activestate > Distribution? Seems to be a duplication of effort
There's a number of reasons why ActiveState's distribution is by far the most popular. As well as what Jan pointed out, - many non-core but useful modules (Tk, ...) are included; - binary compatibility across builds based on perl-5.x is enforced (this is non-trivial in the 5.8 series, due to a change early on concerning randomization of hash keys); - at times, some patches that haven't yet made it into the released perl sources are included; There's also the fact that there's a number of people at ActiveState, like Jan, who are also involved in perl development in general, which leads to a very reliable distribution. -- best regards, randy kobes _______________________________________________ ActivePerl mailing list ActivePerl@listserv.ActiveState.com To unsubscribe: http://listserv.ActiveState.com/mailman/mysubs
