On Mon, Nov 01, 2004 at 04:32:39PM -0600, Dave Rolsky <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Mon, 1 Nov 2004, Joshua Hoblitt wrote: > > >Has anyone that is a win32/activeperl user complained to Activestate > >that they are not providing a DateTime PPM? I assume that DateTime is > >still working on win32 but the PPM status page shows that DT 0.22 is > >failing to build on _all_ platforms. > > It's cause it needs Module::Build for some of the dependencies and their > build boxes don't have Module::Build installed (which is goofy).
Their build process seems to start with a clean slate for each module, perhaps to validate dependencies. DateTime depends on Module::Build but does not declare it's dependency in a way that ActiveState notices in time. Not that I'm blaming DateTime; there's plenty of blame to go around. ActiveState is to blame for (as rumor has it) having someone maybe sometime completely rewrite their build scripts, instead of just quickly addressing this deficiency. DateTime is to blame for using a build method that doesn't yet have support from a sizable segment of the potential user base. Module::Build is to blame for not coming up with a way to have dependencies honored by Makefile.PL-friendly tools; indeed, for not listing itself a dependency at all. And lastly and most importantly, ExtUtils::MakeMaker is to blame for having such a hokey mechanism for dependencies in the first place (to whit: run Makefile.PL and parse out the PREREQ line from the generated Makefile). Oh, and lets not leave out CPAN::FirstTime; everything might work out ok if it would have a default mirror option; see http://ppm.activestate.com/BuildStatus/5.8-windows/windows-5.8/DateTime-Locale-0.09.txt What's the way forward in all this? I don't know. I do know that the Module::Build people are working on what I assume will be a separate module to parse complex dependency information out of META.yml. We'll see how it goes, and if various tools will adopt it. I don't hold my breath. Somewhere on my todo-someday list is to play with uploading test modules with various compatibility schemes to see if I can get ActiveState to notice that Module::Build is a dependency.
