On Thu, Mar 04, 2004 at 03:40:27PM +0100, Michael Scott wrote: : I'd like to remove non-modified, non-parrot Perl modules from lib and : install them via CPAN.pm. I have a version here which works, but I : remember from experience it can be tricky to set up CPAN.pm to work : behind firewalls, so I'm wondering what collective wisdom has to say. : Should we run CPAN.pm from Configure.pl or rely on "prominent notes"?
The only sane course forward is to separate the notion of developer distribution from user distribution. The developer codebase should have no "fat", and can have external dependencies out the wazoo. The user distribution (and there can be more than one--see Linux) provides all the bells and whistles that the distributor sees fit, and should generally shield the user from having to download anything commonly in use. Ideally, the developer codebase should be completely *unusable* by mere mortals, to prevent ISPs from installing that and claiming they "support Perl". They need to be forced to install a user-oriented distribution. Just like you can't merely install the Linux kernel and say you're done. I think this is one of those situations where having our cake and eating it too is not just an option, but a requirement. Larry
