In article <a05200f00ba1b3fdd51a7@[63.120.19.221]>,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Dan Sugalski) wrote:
> At 1:42 AM -0500 12/10/02, Sherm Pendley wrote:
> >What's more, unless "100% pure Perl" modules were stored in a
> >version-agnostic location, they would then need to be reinstalled as
> >well, whereas under the current layout, they can continue to be used
> >as-is.
>
> FWIW, they generally are.
I don't believe this is true. Usually they are installed in an
*architecture*-agnostic location.
[pudge@yaz pudge]$ perl -e 'printf "%s, %vd\n", $^O, $^V'
linux, 5.8.0
[pudge@yaz pudge]$ pmpath MP3::Info
/usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.1/MP3/Info.pm
Then when you configure perl, you can choose to add older version
directories:
[pudge@yaz pudge]$ perl -MConfig -le 'print $Config{inc_version_list}'
5.6.1 5.6.0 5.005
But this won't use the architecture-specific extensions under
site_perl/$version/$arch, only the pure-perl ones found in
site_perl/$version.
[pudge@yaz pudge]$ perl -le 'print join "\n", @INC'
/usr/local/lib/perl5/5.8.0/i686-linux
/usr/local/lib/perl5/5.8.0
/usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.0/i686-linux
/usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.0
/usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.1
/usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.0
/usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005
/usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl
.
So I still have access to my old pure perl modules with perl 5.8.0, and my
old versions of perl still have access to their architecture-specific
extensions, and I need to install new versions of those for perl 5.8.0. The
only problem I encounter here is if an old version of perl needs a new
version of a module (architecture-specific or not) that has already been
installed for perl 5.8.0; I need to install it back for each old version
that needs it. But since I rarely use the old versions, this is not a
significant problem.
Everyone's entitiled to their opinion, especially when something is so tied
to personal preference as this is. But the default system as shown above
works well for me, and I find no significant maintenance issues as outlined
by Sherm.
However, I do find little fault with how Apple handles it, as I just prefer
to install my own perl. This is what I've learned to do on Debian Linux
too, as installing your own perl over the system perl can cause havoc with
apt-get etc. There are certainly ways around it, but it's easier just to
install into /usr/local/.
I think the biggest problem with how Apple does it is that it is
nonstandard. Every other platform does it with versions, that I am aware of
(well, except for maybe MacPerl <g>).
--
Chris Nandor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://pudge.net/
Open Source Development Network [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://osdn.com/
