On Wed, 6 Dec 2000, brian moseley wrote:
> another option would be to use autoconf. wrap a configure script
> around your entire set of components. allow it to find and use
> whichever ones you've already got installed. have it build and install
> whatever you don't already have. not very tough. also not very
> portable to windows.
Perhaps part of this is that we simply need smarter configure/install
methods. There are many limitations imposed by the Perl MakeMaker stuff,
a lot of which I have run up against trying to get Alzabo (which is part
modules, part mason components, and also needs a place on disk to store
info) tested and installed properly. I've also dealt with this on another
app I'm working on (currently under NDA) that requires a bunch of modules,
a set of tables in a database, mod_perl, etc.
I keep meaning to look into cons. Perhaps that is the way to go?
For example, perhaps all modules should check for the prerequisites on
their own and attempt to use CPAN to fetch them if they can't find them.
That works great if the person installing has already config'd the CPAN
module but if not it'll ask you a lot of questions, which may be annoying.
Is there a better way?
I'm pretty sure there is. The problem is right now all my solutions are
pretty much ad hoc (package MY up the wazoo). It would be nice to get
something a lot smarter going.
This is semi-offtopic but does relate the 'untar and go' concept. I don't
think that that is all that likely. But 'untar, run configure, answer
some questions, and go'. That would be a great goal, as opposed to
'untar, try to install, realize you're missing five pieces, install those
pieces, try to install, realize you missed something else, install it, try
to install once again, get it installed, tweak three config files,
manually start up the server with the right switches, and go!'
But I'd also like to point out, as Matt Sergeant said, this stuff is
_really_ hard, and not very glamorous. I would've done much less of it
except for the fact that I'm being paid to do it for the above-mentioned
NDA'd project. I do it for Alzabo because I feel strongly enough about
its potential to try to make it more seemless than your average Perl
module/app.
-dave
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