Re: Module::Build article on perl.com, MakeMaker is doomed

[Anonymous Monk]

Quoting Randal:
Module::Build will not get my support until there's a replacement for h2xs -AXn Module::Name that builds the templates to use Module::Build rather than ExtUtils::MakeMaker.

And quite more frequent have the complaints been that h2xs is a steaming pile of dog doo, doing most everything, except what it should. For this reason, Geoff Avery wrote ExtUtils::ModuleMaker, which is the suggested way to approach the creation of new modules.

Similarly, CPANPLUS doesn't support o conf-style directives to change minor configuration things without going through a fullblown configuration. I can't support CPANPLUS replacing CPAN.pm until this option is available.

I wonder how often you wrote this complaint by now? And how often I pointed out to you that you're wrong. CPANPLUS /does/ do that. Actually, it /has/ been doing that for the last year. Maybe the syntax is what is confusing you, since it's not the same trick you've been memorising for the last 5 years:
s [conf | save | OPTION VALUE]

I'm sure as the perl wizard you are, you understand the following acronym quite clearly: RTFM.
And if this still proves overly challenging, you might want to consider using the Classic Shell, which gives the look and feel of the CPAN.pm shell, but uses CPANPLUS under the hood.

As for your support, although it will be sadly missed, I'm afraid it's not up to you to decide. On a related note, I'm happy to announce that as of CPANPLUS release 0.050, it will be integrated into the perl core, for people to play with and to be released with perl 5.10.

Quoting tachyon:
OK here is a bug report. Module::Builder requires Archive::Tar > 0.22 On Win2K this craps out and without it I can't install your Module unless I edit the Makefile.PL (easy enough). I cna't use PPM to get 0.22 because the latest PPM is 0.072.

It used to require Archive::Tar > 0.22. I've pointed Ken out to this exact problem, and now it doesn't 'just' upgrade the Archive::Tar module. Of course, this is not Ken's fault. Archive::Tar has been in a broken state, and unmaintained on the CPAN for over 3 years. I've recently taken over the namespace and released Archive::Tar version 0.23, which will transparently fall back to the 0.072 code on Win32, without nice fatal errors from gzwrite_().

--Kane