Jeffrey Thalhammer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Randy Kobes distributes Win32 PPMs for some of the > modules that ActiveState doesn't provide. It is not > entirely automated, so the latest code isn't always > available. But Randy is very helpful if there's > anything you want to see. > > http://theoryx5.uwinnipeg.ca/ppms/
What is actually happening on ppm.activestate.com, is that only modules that pass all their unit tests are packaged for the general public. IMHO this is a great idea, since then people who are "ppm installing" stuff from activestate repoes can be reasonably(*) confident that the package will work on their system. Part of the problem is that a lot of modules out there are fully functional even when a few of their tests fail due to assumptions about the environment they are being tested in. Another part is that the ActiveState perl package build process ("cpanrun") doesn't behave exactly the same way as CPAN::YACSmoke. So, a lot of packages that build successfully for CPAN testers don't for ppm.activestate.com (and sometimes, the opposite is true). Gozer (the new ActiveState CPAN<->PPM guru) is working hard to get as many of these failing modules working properly ASAP. In the past few weeks he's implemented the PERL_MM_USE_DEFAULT and AUTOMATED_TESTING environment variables in cpanrun. He's also working on getting as many non-perl dependancies as possible (eg; libgd, libpg, etc) installed on his build boxes so that XS-based packages that depend on these things can be built. A lot of packages still dont get released through activeperl, but the situation is getting better. There's still always going to be packages that fail unit tests, that people want anyways; I think keeping those packages out of a "quality assured" repo is a neccessary sacrifice to maintain integrity. Maybe it would be a good idea for there to be an official "unstable" PPM repo where packages that built, but failed unit tests, get placed -- then somebody who wants to be on the bleeding edge can add that repo to their list to get at the packages, and maybe even lend a hand in figuring out why the tests are failing. Cheers, Tyler