Hi Joel- As I'm sure you are aware, the availability of the needed Alien modules for PDL would be a home run as far as improving the installability. I plan to work on an Alien::OpenGL module to support the perl OpenGL development.
One thing that comes up is how to handle the case that the desired feature is not installed. I think the Alien module should still install a stub that will fail in the usual 'use Alien::XXX' sense *but* if called with an import argument 'use Alien::XXX qw()' then it would instead allow one access to the results of the configuration testing,... The specific example I'm thinking of is Alien::OpenGL where I believe the correct approach would *not* be to try to install OpenGL if missing since it could result in breaking the users system and may require root/admin priviledges. However, it would be useful to report what is there, and what is needed and maybe some info on where to get... --Chris On Fri, Jan 20, 2012 at 10:33 AM, Joel Berger <[email protected]> wrote: > Yeah, I touched base with kmx as I worked on Alien::GSL. As I mention > in the proposal almost all the code had nothing to do with GSL, so I > am trying to fork that code out. Alien::Base is born. > > On Fri, Jan 20, 2012 at 9:30 AM, Chris Marshall <[email protected]> > wrote: >> Joel- >> >> That is great to hear! I had some discussions with kmx on >> this topic along the same lines. He has a number of Alien >> modules that actually work cross-platform as contrasted >> with others that are there but only work on a limited set of >> platforms... Here is the link to the ticket/discussion: >> >> https://rt.cpan.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=67568 >> >> I've cc'd kmx as well. >> >> --Chris >> >> On Fri, Jan 20, 2012 at 10:25 AM, Joel Berger <[email protected]> >> wrote: >>> Chris et al. >>> >>> I am working on a generic Alien:: framework called Alien::Base, hosted >>> at my gh: >>> >>> https://github.com/jberger/Alien-Base . >>> >>> I submitted a proposal to tpf a small grant, here is the text for the >>> concept: >>> >>> https://gist.github.com/1616923 >>> >>> Once this works, it should make Alien:: modules much easier to write. >>> >>> Joel >>> >>> On Fri, Jan 20, 2012 at 9:12 AM, Chris Marshall <[email protected]> >>> wrote: >>>> On Thu, Jan 19, 2012 at 4:52 PM, Clifford Sobchuk >>>> <[email protected]> wrote: >>>>> >>>>> ...don't fully understand what they need to do? Even installing on Linux. >>>>> I >>>>> have tried to build PDL from CPAN and I never get it right. The best way >>>>> for >>>>> me is to do the apt-get install pdl and then go into cpan and do the >>>>> upgrade >>>>> /PDL/. All of the dependencies are accounted when I do it this way. When I >>>>> install from cpan I always end up missing dependencies. >>>> >>>> Hi Cliff- >>>> >>>> Yes, the large number of external dependencies >>>> used by PDL to provide "full" functionality is an >>>> ongoing problem. >>>> >>>> The simplest way to install PDL on linux-ish >>>> systems having some sort of package manager >>>> is to use that to install PDL which should pull >>>> in packages for the needed external library >>>> and program dependencies. Then use CPAN >>>> to upgrade to the latest PDL. >>>> >>>> There has already been discussion and decision >>>> on using the Alien module approach to address >>>> this problem---just no one volunteering to write >>>> the needed Alien::NetPBM, Alien::PROJ4,... >>>> modules. >>>> >>>>> So am I the minority of target users (people who use PDL and don't have a >>>>> clue at how to create their own PP modules) in not being able to get it to >>>>> install from cpan directly? When I use R/scilab/matlab - I use modules >>>>> when >>>>> ever I can because it would take me weeks more time to develop a script. >>>>> On >>>>> the other hand if your target user is a C++/Perl expert, then please >>>>> disregard the above as it doesn't apply. >>>> >>>> I don't think PDL has a chance of surviving as an >>>> active and growing project unless we can make >>>> it possible for anyone to "just use" PDL. Without >>>> a 1-click install, easy interoperability, and good >>>> documentation all the non-C/Perl programmer >>>> scientists will be using Matlab/Octave, or NumPy, >>>> or ... instead. >>>> >>>> Cheers, >>>> Chris >>>> >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> Perldl mailing list >>>> [email protected] >>>> http://mailman.jach.hawaii.edu/mailman/listinfo/perldl _______________________________________________ Perldl mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.jach.hawaii.edu/mailman/listinfo/perldl
