On Sun, Nov 28, 2010 at 4:22 PM, Aristotle Pagaltzis <pagalt...@gmx.de> wrote: > I agree with the notion. But let me ask how much pressure changing > the compression format on CPAN would exert on the world to adapt > itself to it. Note too the quote is written from the perspective > of the world: no mention goes to the fortunes of the unreasonable > man himself…
I'm not sure which side you're arguing with that. Here's how I see it: allowing a new compression format means that someone will inevitably release a distribution with it that someone will try to install with an older toolchain that won't handle it. Based on my prior experience with other such issues, a large portion of the bug reports, complaints, nasty personal comments and what not will accrue to the toolchain and its maintainers and not the author who released the not-backwards-compatible distribution. Thus, I have no personal incentive as a toolchain co-maintainer to do the work, since the only thing I'll get back from it is a hassle. And since only when a significant fraction of CPAN is released in that format will the compression benefits add up, the hassles come quick and the benefits aren't seen for a long time. On the other hand, if someone wants to recompress all of CPAN into XYZ compression scheme and release their own client that deals with it (or patch cpanm or whatever), then they can have the benefits (and any resulting hassles) themselves. -- David
