Re^2: RFC: Portable Alien Library System

[tsee]

in reply to Re: RFC: Portable Alien Library System
in thread RFC: Portable Alien Library System

Hi Corion,

thanks for your long comment. As xdg pointed out, we really appreciate your input.

I'd like to address one point: You say that PPMs are the established way of providing binary packages. I think that's true in a way and false in another. It's the binary package format that is established with ActiveState Perl.
I know they just rewrote all of the PPM code and supposedly created a really shiny GUI. (I have only seen a couple of screenshots so far.) That's great, but if I am not mistaken, we are not free to use their PPM code with non AS Perl distributions. At least I could not find it on CPAN. This means that if we're building something for any Perl distribution to use, we shouldn't lock ourselves into the PPM cabinet. Do you agree?

Steffen

[Corion]

I don't agree in the sense that PPM is an established, working system, and producing PPM files needs no PPM code that isn't available already in Module::Build and I guess ExtUtils::MakeMaker. I'm not interested in creating yet another fancy incompatible format and pushing it down users throats, or rather, I'm more under the impression that there won't be users with throats open for this product. I'm not interested in creating a shiny new world order external library packaging factory but more interested in producing working modules that install external libraries via CPAN below Perl, provided that $Config{make} and a working $Config{cc} are available.

[tsee]

xdg's design really doesn't care whether it's a .ppm+.ppd file or a .par file (for which there is quite a bit of infrastructure, too, by the way) or something entirely different.

I mean, let's forget the details of the file format for a bit. It's the easiest problem to solve when it comes to that.

Steffen

[xdg]

I'm not interested in creating yet another fancy incompatible format and pushing it down users throats, or rather, I'm more under the impression that there won't be users with throats open for this product. I'm not interested in creating a shiny new world order

I guess this is what it really comes down to. Hey, that's cool. No one is trying to force you to help. We couldn't even if we tried.

As tsee echoed, your feedback is appreciated. In time, I hope we can win your support through our code, if not our words.