On 6/22/07, Daniel Hulme <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
On Fri, Jun 22, 2007 at 02:07:35PM -0400, Chas Owens wrote:
> On 6/22/07, chromatic <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >I also like to proceed from the assumption that the only core modules
> >should be those required to install other modules.
> Please, god, no. Or at least make two distributions: Bare Perl 6 and
> Perl 6. Many companies have a "Only Core Perl" policy. They refuse
> to install CPAN modules because "We don't trust them". Yeah, it is
> stupid, but as a contractor I have limited ability to fight their
> ignorance.
Sounds like a bare Perl 6 distribution might be just what you need to
get them to weaken their restriction to "only modules with a good
cpanrating" or, best of all, "evaluate each module according to its
merits." Well, actually, I'm not sure that last one would be best, as
getting each module evaluating would almost inevitably entail getting
five or six high-up people together, none of whom have any interest in
you getting your job done, and who probably hate each others' guts, and
getting them to commit to some form of responsibility-generating paper-
trail.
Call me cynical if you like, but I prefer to call it, "experienced."
Most of the time the policy is enacted by lower-case-l lazy sysadmins
who can't be bothered to type
perl -MCPAN -e install Foo::Bar
My normal route around them is to install the module into the home
directory of the user who is going to run the script, but I have had
difficulty with this before when it comes time to move to production:
"Where is the code review for that code?". My answer of "where is the
code review for that (often open source) database install you just
did?" doesn't tend to hold the weight I wish it did. For some reason
binary blobs make some types of sysadmins feel all fuzzy and warm
inside.
As to whether a bare bones Perl distribution would help or hinder the
process of getting people to accept modules, well, all I can say is
that it is hard enough to get Perl into some companies. If I had to
tell them "Oh, and we have to install all of these modules before we
can start coding." their response would likely be "Java already can do
that. Use it instead.". Yes, I have been told that before (related
to some XML stuff).
