http://www.perlmonks.org?node_id=11149254
Quest starts at:Jan 01, 2023 at 05:00 UTC
Quest ends at:Jan 01, 2024 at 04:59 UTC

This quest is still active!

First, read How do I create a Poll?. Then suggest your poll here. Complete ideas are more likely to be used.

Note that links may be used in choices but not in the title.

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: poll ideas quest 2023 (perl version)
by hippo (Bishop) on Jan 27, 2023 at 16:16 UTC

    I prefer not to run the latest version of Perl because

    • there is too much technical debt in my codebase
    • the stability of the system perl suits me better
    • I have to support users of some ancient version
    • I'm stuck with ActiveState/TinyPerl/microperl/...
    • letting the early adopters trip over the bugs is fine
    • some other reason
[reply]
      • I have to develop for the version of Perl that is on the production systems
      • my web hosting provider has not updated their Perl

      Actually, those two (plus maybe "have to support users") boil down to:

      • I am not the one who decides if/when the Perl version is upgraded
[reply]

      Not sure if "the stability of the system perl suits me better" is intended to cover this, but:

      - the cost of potentially introducing new bugs far outweighs the benefit of (this list of) new features;

      - last time I upgraded everything broke, I don't want to do that again.

      The first of those pretty much covers the perl I use for maths research - it is currently running on 5.34, but I tend to upgrade it very rarely. If I find a bug that affects my maths results, I potentially have to rerun tens of CPU-years-worth of calculations. (Last time that happened I was lucky that I had just moved to a much faster new computer, so it only took 6 months to recompute the previous 10 years of calculations.)

      The second covers a couple of companies I used to work for.

[reply]

      G'day hippo,

      I really like this idea for a poll.

      If this is used in the next few months, replace "latest version" with v5.36; if later in 2023, use v5.38. There's also the possibility that "latest version" is v7.0. Anyway, I'm just thinking that attitudes may change depending on what that "latest version" is.

      Furthermore, an option should be provided for those with the opposite preference. I'm not sure of the best wording; perhaps something like:

      • well, actually, I have no such preference: I'm happily using <latest version>

      — Ken

[reply]
[d/l]
[select]

      Not that I condone any of these reasons, but...

      • I find re-installing all of my modules into a new version a hassle
      • we use XS code that doesn't compile against newer Perls
      • I just haven't gotten around to it
      • I simply don't want to, for reason X (comment below) [perhaps instead of "some other reason"]
[reply]
    • I'm stuck where Strawberry Perl is

      L*

      There are no rules, there are no thumbs..
      Reinvent the wheel, then learn The Wheel; may be one day you reinvent one of THE WHEELS.
[reply]
[d/l]

        Is that worth lumping in with the ActiveState/TinyPerl etc. group or is it a different class of problem? (I don't use such things myself so defer to your expert knownledge)

        🦛

[reply]
      I'm waiting for IndigoStar Software to release "perl2exe" for the latest version of Perl.

      "It's not how hard you work, it's how much you get done."

[reply]
    • because older perls are faster

      L*

      There are no rules, there are no thumbs..
      Reinvent the wheel, then learn The Wheel; may be one day you reinvent one of THE WHEELS.
[reply]
[d/l]
        Is there still a page that benchmarks different Perl versions? I haven't seen it since about 5.26 and my Google-Fu doesn't help me finding it.

        map{substr$_->[0],$_->[1]||0,1}[\*||{},3],[[]],[ref qr-1,-,-1],[{}],[sub{}^*ARGV,3]
[reply]
[d/l]

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