Sure, you could also do an alien download of nmake automatically.

Now that Andreas is actively working on CPAN.pm and taking patches, it's tempting to add that to CPAN.pm.

my $make = $Config{make} . $Config{_exe};
my @path = split $Config{path_sep}, $ENV{PATH};
unless ( grep { -x File::Spec->catfile( $_, $make ) } @path ) {
    # alien download and install
}
[download]

-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.

Its fairly quick and dirty, but check out alien_nmake.pl

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$world=~s/war/peace/g

If this goes ahead, please do not make it look for nmake.exe in some particular path. Rather, just try invoking it via the shell (eg.

my $banner = `nmake /?`;
[download]

or similar), and don't do the download if it already exists in the path.

The freely distributable version of nmake (v1.5) is useless for building many applications that require later versions, and having the installed later version blindly and silently overwritten or preempted by an unnecessary "clever hack" is intensely frustrating.

Personally, I think it would be much better to simply output a clear message if it cannot be found:

nmake.exe not found. Either make this available via your path variable, or download it from ...

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Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.

"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".

In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.

"Too many [] have been sedated by an oppressive environment of political correctness and risk aversion."

Sounds like a patch!

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My criteria for good software:

1. Does it work?
2. Can someone else come in, make a change, and be reasonably certain no bugs were introduced?