On Tue, 4 Jan 2005, Scott W Gifford wrote:
> A private emailer wrote: > > [...] > > > Even better isn't all this on a USPS server? Whatever tool you use > > to grab their server database, include it and do that as part of the > > build process or perhaps offer it as an option , the alternative > > being to go to the USPS server every time. > > Three things I don't like about that. First, it gives a single point > of failure for the system, as compared to relying on CPAN's large > network of mirrors; worse, it would break if USPS's server ever > changed the file location or format. Second, if you want to use > something like CPAN on CD to install onto a non-Internet connected > machine, downloading from an external server will break; you'll have > to arrange for that one file to be copied over and installed by hand. > Third, if you cache CPAN modules for installation to many machines, > this will bypass the cache. > the alternative is stale data. The USPS server is authoritative. This is like saying I should distribute the entire registry for all of .COM with Net::Whois . I guess it comes down to how often the ZIP codes change. I have no idea but of course its less frequent than the registry of .COM . You can always offer a tool in the scripts/ directory of your code distro to build the database from the Internet. That addresses your cache issue.
