but it cannot be automatically built and installed using cpan

That's a valid indictment of the way CPAN.pm works. It's not *just* XML::Parser that's subjected to this ... if I understand correctly, *any* module that needs to be built against a 3rd party library cannot be built using CPAN.pm iff the 3rd party library is in a location where perl is unable to find it (by default). On *nix, this is generally not a problem as the 3rd party libraries are normally installed in a location where perl *does* find them by default. But on Windows I, for one, build my 3rd party libraries using the MSYS shell, and install them into (what the MSYS shell regards as) /usr/local ... and perl does not find that "/usr/local" directory by default.

Actually, I think (based upon some recent private correspondence from adamk) that XML::Parser is a little special in that, even if the expat library is placed in a location where perl can find it by default, XML::Parser *still* won't build on Windows using CPAN.pm ... but complain about that to the XML::Parser author.

I'm sure CPAN.pm is very good, but I personally find it detestable (primarily because it ignores any instructions that have been given in the README) and don't use it. I tend therefore to also avoid modules such as Net::SSH::Perl which assume (via their copious use of other modules) that CPAN.pm is being deployed.

In short, since I don't use CPAN.pm (and since I'm not the author of XML::Parser) I don't really care about the caviats regarding the building of XML::Parser on Windows using CPAN.pm. I've personally found the building of XML::Parser to be quite straightforward (once I knew how :-)

However, I probably *will* get back to looking at why that disparity exists between Strawberry Perl and my own MinGW-built perl when building your patched XML-Parser-2.36. Curiosity is sure to get the better of me in the end :-)

Cheers,
Rob

In reply to Re^3: UnBefuzzling XML::Parser: an adventure with EU::MM method overrides by syphilis
in thread UnBefuzzling XML::Parser: an adventure with EU::MM method overrides by Intrepid

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.