Re^2: $^W or require warnings and import warnings;

Why would someone run something new like Subversion, and not bother to upgrade their ancient Perl? Upgrading parts of your system while other parts are left to rot in legacy mode just seems like trouble.

Thus spake someone who hasn't had to maintain systems for the long term. :-)

Many times it is necessary that particular versions of perl, modules, libraries, etc. are all required just to make the mission-critical application work. "Upgrading" is often counter productive and costly (due to time lost chasing down weird interactions and fixing them among other things).

Switching from CVS to SVN (for instance) is something that is likely to only affect the development team while switching from perl 5.005_04 to 5.8.6 may affect everybody.

duff

Comment on Re^2: $^W or require warnings and import warnings;

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Re^3: $^W or require warnings and import warnings; by bluto (Curate) on Jun 15, 2005 at 18:22 UTC
I understand about having to keep a legacy perl around to support older apps, etc, and I don't have a problem with that. It just seems like a no-brainer to also have an additional up-to-date perl (i.e. a separate install) if you plan on using up-to-date scripts. Chances are very good that these new scripts weren't actually designed or tested on your legacy perl (i.e. you'll need to test/examine them). Having a separate perl seems a lot easier to me than examining every new script you put on the machine to make sure it's going to work with your legacy perl.	[reply]
Re^4: $^W or require warnings and import warnings; by duff (Parson) on Jun 16, 2005 at 14:42 UTC
Having a separate perl seems a lot easier to me than examining every new script you put on the machine to make sure it's going to work with your legacy perl. Sure ... if you're even allowed to install a new perl on the machine. Often political or social concerns override the obvious technical solutions. Especially when "legacy systems" are concerned. duff	[reply]
Re^5: $^W or require warnings and import warnings; by bluto (Curate) on Jun 16, 2005 at 15:37 UTC
It's just hard for me to understand that you'd have the freedom to upgrade your development method to Subversion, but not be able to install your own private copy of perl. I thought I had strange politics to deal with at work ... I've seen risk-adverse behavior wrt maintaining legacy systems, but usually there is some consistency to it. :-)	[reply]