Re: Why is it in some other popular languages fewer steps and potential issues when installing libraries no testing needed and no compilation of C/C++ code done

Perl has a long-standing tradition of testing. You can always choose to ignore the test results or just disable testing when installing modules.

Out of personal experience though, I find that the tests run mostly reflect the assumptions of the programmer writing the module. So if a module test fails, this means, at least in my personal experience, that at least one assumption of the original programmer fails. I prefer an early notice of such failing assumptions over code that just fails while I try to figure out what the code does.

Comment on Re: Why is it in some other popular languages fewer steps and potential issues when installing libraries no testing needed and no compilation of C/C++ code done

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Re^2: Why is it in some other popular languages fewer steps and potential issues when installing libraries no testing needed and no compilation of C/C++ code done by hermida (Scribe) on Apr 06, 2011 at 13:25 UTC
But what about not needing to compile any C/C++ code that is in the library? Just trying to understand to see how Perl can be made easier for beginners and not-so-beginners. People like us who have used the language for a long while and know well CPAN/CPANPLUS/App::cpanminus have no issues, but we should make things as easy as I see it in Python, beginners are the people that become our future Perl community and expand the usage of the language.	[reply]
Re^3: Why is it in some other popular languages fewer steps and potential issues when installing libraries no testing needed and no compilation of C/C++ code done by Corion (Patriarch) on Apr 06, 2011 at 13:32 UTC
If the C library is included with the Perl distribution, CPAN (or App::cpanminus) will kick off the normal C compilation mechanism provided by ExtUtils::MakeMaker, Module::Install or Module::Build, and you will not need any additional interaction. I'm not sure how things can be made easier than `> cpan DBD::SQLite` [download] to install, for example, DBD::SQLite.	[reply] [d/l]
Re^4: Why is it in some other popular languages fewer steps and potential issues when installing libraries no testing needed and no compilation of C/C++ code done by hermida (Scribe) on Apr 06, 2011 at 13:40 UTC
I know, I know, but let me tell you how many people in my community (which is a major user of Perl) think cpan management is too complicated and always ask why in other languages you just get a jar or egg or whatever for dependency management. Trust me I'm not complaining at all I am the one who sets up all the CPAN infrastructure for the sysadmins so it is super simple for them to install and upgrade libraries and I have my own local repo and install in my $HOME directory	[reply]
Re^5: Why is it in some other popular languages fewer steps and potential issues when installing libraries no testing needed and no compilation of C/C++ code done by Corion (Patriarch) on Apr 06, 2011 at 13:44 UTC
Re^5: Why is it in some other popular languages fewer steps and potential issues when installing libraries no testing needed and no compilation of C/C++ code done by Anonymous Monk on Apr 06, 2011 at 14:14 UTC