On Thu, 9 Apr 2009, Eric Wilhelm wrote:
I, as a module author providing you a free product, don't have to give
a damn. Realistically, authors give some amount of damn, but maybe
not a full "I'll support Perl 5.004 for the poor slobs using ancient
Red Hat boxes".
Exactly. If you treat Perl like a legacy language, there won't be any
new users and you won't have any problems of some new code not being
compatible with your old code because there won't be any new code.
But if you treat Perl like there's only new installations out there you're
going to be ignoring a huge installed base of older machines, and your code
won't get used.
You guys have the right to do whatever you want with your code, and I'm not
advocating that everyone should support fifteen years of Perl revisions. I
am, however, saying that if you really want the Perl community to largely
benefit from contributions you need to be conscious of what the installed
base out there is using.
I highly doubt the majority of Perl *users* (not developers) out there are
as bleeding edge as yourselves.
--Arthur Corliss
Live Free or Die
