I'm happy to announce that a beta version of the new PPM4 client has been released as part of ActivePerl 5.8.8.817.90 (the long build number really means it is the first beta of the 818 release).
You can download the beta here: http://www.activestate.com/Products/Download/Download.plex?id=ActivePerl&type=beta I've attached the release notes at the end of this message. Please file bug reports under the "PPM_Client" component in our normal ActivePerl bug database at http://bugs.activestate.com and send any feedback/enhancement requests either to the ppm mailing list (you must subscribe before you can post) or to mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Cheers, -Jan PS: Beta 1 does *not* yet include the GUI interface for PPM4, but it does bundle the Tcl and Tkx modules that we are using to implement it (we wrote Tkx for the cross-platform GUI stuff you can see in the Perl Dev Kit). It is still missing some documentation, so we are not highlighting Tcl/Tkx in the release notes, but feel free to send us feedback about it too if you happen to play with it. > ActivePerl 817.90 (818 Beta 1) -- Release Notes > > Welcome, and thank you for downloading ActivePerl. This release > corresponds to Perl version 5.8.8. The main purpose of this Beta > release of ActivePerl is solicit feedback on the new PPM client > and directory layout changes for build 818. > > Note: This is a Beta release and may contain incomplete features > and known bugs. It is made available for testing purposes > and should not be used in a production environment. > > The following platforms are supported by this Beta release: > > . Linux: glibc 2.2 or later (Red Hat 7+, SuSE 7.1+) (x86) > > . Mac OS X 10.3 "Panther" or later (x86 or powerpc) > > . Solaris 2.6 or later (sparc) > > . Windows 9x, NT, Me, 2000, XP and 2003 (x86) > > PPM version 4 > > The rewritten PPM client will be the main new feature for > ActivePerl 818. The main user visible change will be that the > command line shell is replaced by a graphical shell, but this > shell will not appear until Beta 2 of ActivePerl 818. > > The "ppm" command will continue to work as a command line utility > and its feature set as such can be evaluated in this release. Run > "perldoc ppm" or "ppm help" for details about what subcommands > are available and how they behave. > > PPM manages packages installed in different install areas. These > areas are used to separate the packages that come bundled with > ActivePerl from the packages that are installed locally. This > also allows users to install packages into their home directory > when using a shared ActivePerl installation which the user does > not have permissions to modify. > > There are two install areas that will always be present for an > ActivePerl installation: "perl" and "site". The perl interpreter > itself, the core modules, and packages bundled by ActiveState are > in the "perl" install area. The "site" install area is where the > local administrator installs additional packages. This area > starts out empty in a new installation of ActivePerl. > > Earlier releases of PPM effectively only managed the "site" > install area. This area also contained the bundled packages as > well as the PPM client itself which created problems in upgrading > any of these packages (you had to be very careful not to break > PPM itself). This also prevented ActiveState from providing > updates to the core and bundled packages in our repository. The > new separation solves this problem. > > Use the "ppm area list" command to display which install areas > are currently available. Use the "ppm list" command to display > what packages are currently installed. Use the "ppm list site" > command to see what additional packages are installed in the > "site" area. Use the "ppm install" command to install additional > packages and "ppm help install" to learn more about how > installation works. > _______________________________________________ ActivePerl mailing list ActivePerl@listserv.ActiveState.com To unsubscribe: http://listserv.ActiveState.com/mailman/mysubs
