Searching through Modules in CPAN

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

Hi, I searched through the CPAN website and found a extension for a text editor Proc::InvokeEditor. But when I search from ppm3 in my Win32 computer, I am not able to find it. When I typed search Invoke in the ppm3, it returned a message,

Searching in Active Repositories
1. SOAP-AutoInvoke [0.25] SOAP-AutoInvoke
[download]

Not only with this particular module, but I find this with few other modules too. Can anyone tell me whether I am wrong in installing this? Or is there a way through which I can install this from anywhere else apart from CPAN?

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Re: Searching through Modules in CPAN by Corion (Patriarch) on Sep 01, 2006 at 10:52 UTC
The `ppm3` program and the ActiveState repositories are not CPAN. Installation from CPAN is best done through the `cpan` command shell. There are tutorials on this site how to install modules on this site: A Guide to Installing Modules A guide to installing modules for Win32	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Searching through Modules in CPAN by xdg (Monsignor) on Sep 01, 2006 at 11:47 UTC
Not all modules on CPAN are available from ActiveState. Their Build Status page shows which modules are available for which operating system. Some of the modules that aren't available for Win32 are due to the modules themselves not being Win32 compatible. Some are due to problems with the ActiveState build system. You might also check out win32.perl.org for more information on Win32 Perl, including alternate repositories and alternatives to ActiveState. -xdg Code written by xdg and posted on PerlMonks is public domain. It is provided as is with no warranties, express or implied, of any kind. Posted code may not have been tested. Use of posted code is at your own risk.	[reply]
Re: Searching through Modules in CPAN by jdtoronto (Prior) on Sep 01, 2006 at 12:37 UTC
ActiveState use an automatic build system and some modules with unusual dependencies don't build. You should also have at least the `uwinnipeg` and `bribes` repositories in your list. It seems these folk manually build some of the modules. However many modules either do not build properly on Win32 at all, or are not appropriate for Win32. Update The module fails tests on Win32 because it is attempting to use Unix editors and none of them can be found, take a look at the tests and I think you will see why, it is trying to use vim, vi, emacs and ed. Maybe if the last two tests were re-written it would pass - and then build in AS's automatic system. jdtoronto	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Searching through Modules in CPAN by randyk (Parson) on Sep 02, 2006 at 14:09 UTC
You're right - adding an editor available on Win32 like `notepad`, in the appropriate places in the tests, allows all tests to pass. The module is useable on Win32 if, for example, you set the EDITOR environment variable to `C:\Path\to\your\favorite\editor.exe`, including the `exe` extension. I've placed a ppm package of this up at the uwinnipeg repository.	[reply]