On Fri, Sep 07, 2001 at 07:03:28PM +0200, Andreas J. Koenig wrote:
> Your examples nearly conviced me, but...
>
> What if your module depends on version 2.102 of Data::Dumper? How many
> users will come and ask us where to find 2.102?
That's just trading one problem for another. Currently, they ask "How
can I get Data::Dumper 2.102 without upgrading Perl?"
But... hmmm... you *do* have that comment field in the
02packages.details file you're looking for in CPAN.pm, but not using.
Why not make it read...
Data::Dumper 2.101 G/GS/GSAR/Data-Dumper-2.101.tar.gz incore 2.102
indicating there's a higher version in the perl core? Then the CPAN
shell can tip them off with something like...
Foo::Bar depends on Data::Dumper 2.102, but that version is only
available by upgrading your version of Perl. Sorry.
> Also consider the effect of a module that's in the core and not
> maintained on CPAN anymore.
This is a problem with the core modules I'm trying to correct.
Ideally, with a few obvious exceptions, they should all be available
on CPAN in some backwards compatible form or another.
> After a while, somebody will complain that CPAN is horribly
> outdated. Then either the author will delete the outdated version
> (complicating the indexer's logic)
If the author does not intend to release new versions of the module to
CPAN, deleting the old versions (or moving them to backpan) is the
next best thing to do.
The indexing logic isn't terribly complicated by this. All you have
to add is a little clause saying "If there's no other version of the
module available, list the core version".
If you could tell me where to get the indexer code, I'll have a look
at it and try a patch.
--
Michael G. Schwern <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.pobox.com/~schwern/
Perl6 Quality Assurance <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Kwalitee Is Job One
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