This is my personal experience... On Fri, Sep 10, 2010 at 10:53 AM, Chris Marshall <[email protected]> wrote: > In another thread, the recommendation to build > perl modules (e.g., PDL) *not* using the system > perl came up again. > > My experience is that for maximum portability > and testability you usually want to build > against the "official OS perl" in the > "official OS location". That way other users > and developers can reproduce your build > environment which is needed to diagnose and > fix bugs.
If the above is the intent, then yes, building PDL against a "reference" platform is desirable, in fact, mandatory. And, the system Perl is definitely the best reference. However, if any work with PDL is desired, then my personal experience is that building one's own Perl and then PDL against it is better because -- 1. Most importantly, I don't bugger up the system Perl inadvertently, thereby bringing the rest of my work to a standstill. 2. I learn what goes where. 3. I am able to build all the little variations that my own work might require. 4. The vendor's (Apple's) updates don't have any effect on my work environment just as my work environment doesn't impinge upon the vendor's software. PDL does have specific dependencies, so whether one is installing them in /usr/local/ or in the system location (/usr), even the reference platform is not going to be very standard from person to person, from computer to computer. > > In addition, while building one's own perl is > relatively straightforward, it is not something > we should be recommending to PDL beginners nor > is it something that should be required for > PDL development. A PDL beginner is going to be an otherwise relatively savvy Perl/computer user. PDL is not that easy, and someone how has never worked with Perl or computers or programming is not going to jump into PDL. So, it is not unreasonable to think that even a PDL beginner has probably already installed software, including her/his own custom Perl. > > For cygwin development, I've been successful > with maintaining a personal module tree built > using the system perl. > > Is this recommendation based on the limitations > of the Mac OS X platform (I thought it was > pretty much unix) or is this something other > users and developers should be recommended > to do? Nothing Mac specific. I (personally) think it would be a good recommendation for any platform. > > Cheers, > Chris > > On 9/9/2010 10:12 PM, Tim Jenness wrote: >> >> It's not recommended to build modules using the system > > Perl since Apple might change it at any time > > (and you have to be careful to install the files > > somewhere outside of /System or /Library). > > > It's always easier to build your own perl in /usr/local > > or even your home tree. > > _______________________________________________ > Perldl mailing list > [email protected] > http://mailman.jach.hawaii.edu/mailman/listinfo/perldl > -- Puneet Kishor http://www.punkish.org Carbon Model http://carbonmodel.org Charter Member, Open Source Geospatial Foundation http://www.osgeo.org Science Commons Fellow, http://sciencecommons.org/about/whoweare/kishor Nelson Institute, UW-Madison http://www.nelson.wisc.edu ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Assertions are politics; backing up assertions with evidence is science ======================================================================= _______________________________________________ Perldl mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.jach.hawaii.edu/mailman/listinfo/perldl
