Re^3: Where to put the bits and pieces - Installing a complex CPAN dist

[adamk]

There's a few problems I see... Firstly, you've dumped straight under unix system share... what if there are non-Perl packages that share a name with a CPAN distribution? What about when there are multiple versions of Perl installed on the machine? Where is the equivalent path on Windows? How do they get packaged into Perl distributions. The reason we use the auto method is that it handles most of the above cases...

[Hercynium]

*gah* I had written a response to this but lost it with an ill-placed mouse-click >:o

Anyhow, the gist is that the concept floating around in my head is to *add* to the options a developer has when choosing paths, but to do so in a structured manner. Static data that is used only by your perl code should *certainly* be installed under the auto hierarchy, but sometimes an application has static data that should be in a place more accessible to the user and/or non-perl system components. Web apps especially seem to have this need.

I would provide installation options for an author targeted not just for module distributions, but also for system applications and web applications. I explained this in more detail in the post that got lost, but I just want to add that when I get a few spare tuits, I think I will play around with implementing this as extensions/subclasses of your (and Ingy and Audrey's) Module::Install. I like the interface. I like the relative cleanliness. I like the flexibility for extension.

I've added some more notes to my scratchpad which I *did* save before closing the wrong window *grumble*. I really appreciate your input and *greatly* admire your contributions to the Perl community.