Dave Rolsky wrote:
IMNSHO, this is an unrealistic view. We should not take the blame for Sun's failure to ship a C compiler (without an enormous charge) with their systems. If DateTime succeeds, someone will build binary distributions for each platform which lacks a free C compiler (like Windows, btw). This should not be a primary constraint on development for DateTime.Most of the computers I administer don't have C compilers (the run Solaris). Requiring XS makes DateTime useless. I thought DateTime was a great idea, but now I hope the older Date and Time modules will be maintained so I can use them -- or I'll have to roll my own modules. This leaves me at the point I was before the DateTime project started. *groan*
If it is obvious that performance for isolated users on relatively unloaded systems (like my desktop ;~) is being harmed by the need to remain "Pure Perl" then XS is pretty much going to be required for all true server platforms. If we build it, someone else will distribute the binary files.
I would suggest that you do so only so far as it is used to model what the XS version needs to do. Once the API is settled, the pure Perl version should be maintained strictly as a reference implementation (bugfixes only), and not as a parallel development project.Like I said, I could maintain a pure Perl version as well.
My two cents...
John
--
John Peacock
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