Seeking Data::Swap, now replaced

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

Low tech problem but also a generalised grumble.

I want to use DBIx::Simple and it needs the Data::Swap Module. The author of Data::Swap has, in his wisdom, decided to replace Data::Swap by Data::Alias, with a Data::Swap wrapper module. This may or may not work but I can't find out as Data::Alias won't make on anything less than 5.8.1 and I am stuck with 5.8.0 on the customer's machine I am having to use.

Meanwhile, I still want this module. I've tried archive.org and mirrors.valueclick.com which supposedly contain old versions of modules but they weren't working yesterday.

So, I can't use DBIx::Simple. The author of Data::Swap has, effectively, broken another module. I can understand he wants to move on, but that's not, IMHO, a valid reason to remove a working module from CPAN, especially when other modules depend on it.

What views, monks?

AndyH

Comment on Seeking Data::Swap, now replaced

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Re: Seeking Data::Swap, now replaced by Corion (Patriarch) on Sep 29, 2004 at 10:29 UTC
Did you look on http://backpan.cpan.org, the official CPAN archive? xmaths author directory, http://backpan.cpan.org/authors/id/X/XM/XMATH/, seems to contain the old versions. xmath i also here from time to time, so you might want to contact him directly. I believe that the prerequisite of 5.8.1 was because of some bugs in 5.8.0, but you'll find that out soon enough ...	[reply]
Re^2: Seeking Data::Swap, now replaced by AndyH (Sexton) on Sep 29, 2004 at 11:33 UTC
`backpan.cpan.org` was the piece of information I was missing. Many thanks to you (and gellyfish who also suggested it). I use CPAN a lot but had never heard of it. It's not in the CPAN FAQ and doing a search for it in "all" returns nothing useful. Wonder why not ... Anyway, my immediate problem is solved. PerlMonks triumphs over adversity yet again. Thanks!	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Seeking Data::Swap, now replaced by xmath (Hermit) on Sep 29, 2004 at 15:19 UTC
Okay, I've just built a new split-off Data::Swap 0.05 and uploaded it to PAUSE. It should appear on CPAN soon. It includes the bug-fixes and 'deref' function that were introduced together with Data::Alias, but works in perl 5.6.0 and later. It has also been tested on Win32. Hopefully this rectifies the problem I created. Again my apologies for the inconvenience. UPDATE: It has reached CPAN.	[reply]
Re^2: Seeking Data::Swap, now replaced by AndyH (Sexton) on Sep 30, 2004 at 06:31 UTC
Many thanks. The speed and quality of response on this site never ceases to amaze me. Simply the best support resource I have ever found ... Have installed the newly released Data-Swap 0.05. Got this warning: `'NO_META' is not a known MakeMaker parameter name` when doing perl Makefile.PL but make, make test and make install all go OK and DBIx::Simple seems to remain happy, so I do as well ... (this is with perl 5.8.0 on Debian 2.4.18).	[reply] [d/l]
Re^3: Seeking Data::Swap, now replaced by xmath (Hermit) on Sep 30, 2004 at 08:05 UTC
Yes, just ignore that warning. It's a fairly recently introduced parameter that can be safely disregarded in older MakeMakers. Glad to hear it works for you.	[reply]
Re: Seeking Data::Swap, now replaced by gellyfish (Monsignor) on Sep 29, 2004 at 10:02 UTC
To be honest I don't think that there is likely to be anything in 5.8.1 that isn't in 5.8.0 that a module would rely on - I would see if you can edit the `require 5.8.1` line and see if the sucker still passes its tests - if it does I would suggest dropping the author a line and asking him if he could do so for the next release. /J\	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: Seeking Data::Swap, now replaced by xmath (Hermit) on Sep 29, 2004 at 13:14 UTC
I did not randomly pick 5.8.1 as requirement. There were many internal changes between 5.8.0 and 5.8.1 which made back-porting Data::Alias to 5.8.0 impossible. Yes, I tried. I have to admit my choice to make Data::Alias engulf and supercede Data::Swap may not have been the good idea it seemed at the time, especially since I discovered that Data::Alias does not build properly on quite a few platforms. I'll consider splitting off Data::Swap again. In the mean time, please accept my sincere apologies for the inconvenience I caused. UPDATE: split-off done	[reply]
Re^2: Seeking Data::Swap, now replaced by AndyH (Sexton) on Sep 29, 2004 at 10:15 UTC
I changed the `use 5.008001` line in Makefile.PL to `use 5.008000` but the compilation of the Alias.xs file fails. So, it seems the new version either really does want 5.8.1 or is just broken. Either way, I'm stuck until me and the copy of Data::Swap on my USB stick drive (currently in another country) are re-united....	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^3: Seeking Data::Swap, now replaced by gellyfish (Monsignor) on Sep 29, 2004 at 10:40 UTC
Could you possibly be getting stuffed up by the: `#ifdef USE_5005THREADS #error "5.005 threads not supported by Data::Alias" #endif` [download] in the Alias.xs ? You can determine if you do have 5.005 threads configured in by looking at the output of `perl -V`. If all else fails you can download the old module from backpan /J\	[reply] [d/l] [select]