in reply to 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
in thread Why are other popular languages very different from Perl when installing libraries, e.g. no testing needed and no compilation of C/C++ code done

The disadvantage of prepackaged bundles like eggs or par files is that maintainers have to provide one for every target machine or sometimes even distribution.

On the other side (the user side) I think perl users are accustomed to cpan, they usually see no reason to look for PARs, maybe with the exception of windows users. Why change when the current system works?

A really sore point about cpan is that it may conflict with perl packages installed by a distribution. Other than that there is nothing complicated about it, maybe only that there is no GUI (that I know of) for newbies

  • Comment on 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

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re^6: 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 16:07 UTC
    Ah ok, I understand more now. I guess Python people have to make it this way, that they must go through this hassle of creating personal egg files for each platform and python version for each library dependency needed and then host them on their server for automatic download because they don't have many other alternatives like we have.

    I agree with all of your comments, in the end the CPAN way is much better and if I'm thinking correctly if you are providing the public with an application you can use Module::AutoInstall to provide the same CPAN automatic dependency download and installation during initial application setup, essentially the same but better than that mentioned with the eggs and Python

[reply]
      files for each platform and python version

      See PEP 384 Defining a Stable ABI

      The idea is to phase this need out for as many modules as possible. It means using a restricted API though, and it will not be suitable for quite a few modules.

[reply]
        You're still stuffed if you want your code to be portable though. Remember, not all the world runs on Intel.
[reply]

In Section Seekers of Perl Wisdom