On Mon, Sep 29, 2008 at 01:59:09PM -0400, Michael G Schwern wrote:
> Matt S Trout wrote:
> > use inc::Module::Install;
>
> I will say it again: Module::Install is the greatest threat to CPAN
> stability.
>
> Module::Install bundles itself, but will not use a newer installed version.
> [1] At some point something is going to happen which will break
> Module::Install. A subtle perl upgrade bug, some new operating system quirk,
> a dependency change, or more probably, MakeMaker will change something in its
> guts and one of the many hacks MI does will no longer work.
You mean like how Module::Build broke over a YAML release and we spent over
a year cleaning up after it because every single user who ran into that
version mismatch had to have the problem explained to them?
I still regularly see -ancient- versions of Module::Build installed lots of
places, often pre-INSTALL_BASE-behaviour-change, which causes great fun when
I upgrade it past that release.
I know that's crap. I know it's sad. But it's the real world, and I live in
it.
> At that point every dist which bundles MI will fail and we will have to wait
> while every one of them releases an update. From experience, this is a very,
> very slow process which will have repercussions for months and years after the
> initial OMGUBROKECPAN event.
>From experience, most actively maintained stuff fixes itself quite quickly.
Anything that doesn't isn't actively maintained and is vulnerable to the same
problem with every line of its own code as well.
However, I think it's becoming fairly evident that to all intents and
purposes we're arguing a matter of opinion here, so since I think we've
now both stated our arguments pretty clearly I'm going to bow out of the
thread at this point, and hope that if you agree with this paragraph, you'll
agree to disagree on the rest of the points.
--
Matt S Trout Need help with your Catalyst or DBIx::Class project?
Technical Director http://www.shadowcat.co.uk/catalyst/
Shadowcat Systems Ltd. Want a managed development or deployment platform?
http://chainsawblues.vox.com/ http://www.shadowcat.co.uk/servers/
