I am almost ready to release the new version of PDF::Template (Yay!). One sticking point has been my lack of knowledge of the module build process, from the developer's side.

My major concern is the Unicode support. If you're running pre-5.8 and you want to use non-English, I have to require you have Unicode::String installed. But, if you either won't be using non-English or you have 5.8+, I don't want to force you to install it. Also, I'd like to be able to change the code that's actually installed so that you aren't burdened with the overhead of a feature you don't want to use. (Right now, Unicode::String is required, and I don't like that.)

Additionally, in the next release, I will be supporting both PDFLib and PDF::API2 as the rendering options. (Right now, only PDFLib is supported.) How do I work within the CPAN framework so that "follow" works correctly? (I'm also going to want to do a similar thing with XML parsers. Right now, I use XML::Parser, but I'd like to be able to support SAX parsers ...)

Also, is there a clean way of using warnings if 5.6+ and -w if not? There are a few places I do something like no warnings 'once';, but I don't want to require 5.6+ just to use my module. I wouldn't mind optionally converting those to local $^W = 0;, but I'd prefer to keep the interface to warnings, if supported. (Or, am I just being a pansy?)

------
We are the carpenters and bricklayers of the Information Age.

The idea is a little like C++ templates, except not quite so brain-meltingly complicated. -- TheDamian, Exegesis 6

... strings and arrays will suffice. As they are easily available as native data types in any sane language, ... - blokhead, speaking on evolutionary algorithms

Please remember that I'm crufty and crochety. All opinions are purely mine and all code is untested, unless otherwise specified.

In reply to Varying module build options by dragonchild

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