A not uncommon question arises, "I want to write a Perl program and
distribute it to my customers/users/co-workers, but what if they don't
have Perl?" This may be someone wanting to ship out their code to
Windows and Mac machines, or maybe they're in some company gripped in
the clutches of Java and Perl has been banished from all machines. Or
maybe everyone's still using perl5.004 and you need 5.005_03. Maybe
they have the wrong versions of the modules you need.
Its a problem. Perl without perl. And right now there's a
hodge-podge of solutions:
Get the user to install perl.
Translate to C and compile. (perlcc and friends)
Bundle the interpreter, program and modules together into a self-executing
binary (perl2exe)
Bundle the interpreter, program and modules together with an install
script (I've seen a few commercial web tools do this)
All these techniques have their strengths and weaknesses which I'm
sure we're all aware of (and this is the wrong place to debate them).
What I'm concerned is that Perl 6 has a clean, reliable, free and
straightforward way(s) to use Perl without perl. How clean, reliable,
free and straightforward? About the same order of magnitude as
releasing a module is at the moment. If this involves a Makemaker
style installation harness for programs, fine. If it merely involves
better documentation of the process, that's fine, too.
Just wanted to plant that nugget in everyone's brain. Perl without
perl, make it work.
--
Michael G Schwern http://www.pobox.com/~schwern/ [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Just Another Stupid Consultant Perl6 Kwalitee Ashuranse
Cherry blossoms fall
I hurry to my final
boiling paste enema.
-- mjd
