jdtoronto has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Esteemed Monks,

I have been looking at CONFIG modules it seems like for weeks! When I find one I like it is not available from ActiveState.

So, my question is - I need a config manager that can store hashes and arrays within the config. It must have named sections. I like Config-General. Are there any other monks using this with AS 5.8.0 on Windows (I am using XP)? If so can you give me some clues on any problems you had making/installing the module?

Also, as a neophyte when it comes to modules, how do I tell if a module is pure-perl or if it has XS in it?

jdtoronto

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Config managers
by tcf22 (Priest) on Aug 29, 2003 at 20:05 UTC
    One option is to use one of the XML::* modules and just write an XML document to store your data.

    Another option, which is probably the easiest, is to use Data::Dumper, and print the structure to a file. Then when you read it back in, just store it in a var and eval it. Just be careful, since you are evalling, to check the content for system, exec, backticks, etc., to make sure it hasn't been tampered with.

    Update:
    I checked ActiveState for Config::General, and the reason you can't get it for Win32, is because it failed compilation. Take a look here for a list of Config::* modules that have compiled on Win32.
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Re: Config managers
by bobn (Chaplain) on Aug 30, 2003 at 02:50 UTC

    Storable.pm is available on Activestate, with the added advantage that you don't eval anything to get it back.

    --Bob Niederman, http://bob-n.com

    All code given here is UNTESTED unless otherwise stated.

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Re: Config managers
by PodMaster (Abbot) on Aug 30, 2003 at 08:42 UTC
    Tutorials -> A Guide to Installing Modules

    `perldoc perlmodinstall'

    A non-pure-perl module has files that end in .xs, .c, .h, .y, .cc, .cxx, or .C, and the INSTALL file generally reflects that it requires a compiler and/or external libraries (like libxml2...).

    MJD says "you can't just make shit up and expect the computer to know what you mean, retardo!"
    I run a Win32 PPM repository for perl 5.6.x and 5.8.x -- I take requests (README).
    ** The third rule of perl club is a statement of fact: pod is sexy.

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      This is a good last resort.

      I've found that PPM is superior for Windows installations since it automatically adds a module's HTML documentation to ActivePerl's set of documentation (HTML files). I'm sure that this can be done manually, but I haven't spent the time to figure it out.

      Are there instructions available for creating HTML pages from a module's POD and then linking it into ActivePerl's documentation?

      Also, what other things does PPM handle that is specific for ActivePerl? I've noticed something about PPM3 registering installed modules with ActiveState.

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        Are there instructions available for creating HTML pages from a module's POD and then linking it into ActivePerl's documentation?
        At first I used to use ActivePerl::DocTools. Soon after I wrote ActivePerl::DocTools::TOC::HTML::Podmaster. Around that time ActiveState started removing the pod from all the ActivePerl::* modules. I didn't like that very much, so I wrote Pod::Master. I now use Pod::Master exclusively.
        Also, what other things does PPM handle that is specific for ActivePerl? I've noticed something about PPM3 registering installed modules with ActiveState.
        I haven't seen anything about that, but then I don't have an ActiveState account, or buy any of ActiveStates producs (I get the free stuff). What you're describing are ActiveState Developer profiles (or something like that). I don't use that feature (apparently if you use ActiveState flavored TCL, Python ... you can also use PPM to manage those, but I don't use TCL, and I don't use ActiveState flavored Python).

        update: if you don't bother to look at ActivePerl::DocTools::TOC::HTML::Podmaster, or look inside ActivePerl::DocTools, how you (or PPM for that matter) update the html is 

        perl -MActivePerl::DocTools -e UpdateHTML()

        [download]
        That's basically what PPM does after you use it to install a module.

        MJD says "you can't just make shit up and expect the computer to know what you mean, retardo!"
        I run a Win32 PPM repository for perl 5.6.x and 5.8.x -- I take requests (README).
        ** The third rule of perl club is a statement of fact: pod is sexy.

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