Re: [MacPerl] CPAN

[Andreas Koenig <k@anna.in-berlin.de>]

>>>>> Matthias Ulrich Neeracher writes:

  > pudge@pobox.com (Chris Nandor) writes:
 >> 1.)  No, we should use .hqx.  .bin is too unreliable.  I know it is
 >> smaller, but too many people have had problems with it for me to condone
 >> its use.  Just my opinion.

  > I disagree. Most ftp clients handle MacBinary automatically and to folks like
  > me who are sitting on a 14400 link at home, 30% longer download times are not
  > a trivial disadvantage (Not to speak of 30% more archive disk space).

This seems an important statement to me. I'm also reluctant to support
30% waste.

  > Furthermore, MacPerl itself has for several years been distributed as
  > MacBinary, and complaints have decreased over time.

 >> 2.)  But if we are going to bother to .tar.gz it anyway, why create the
 >> .sit.hqx?  Almost anyone who uses MacPerl can get at .tar.gz files, simply
 >> because you need it to get at everything else in CPAN.

  > tar files have no concept of file types, so shared libraries and droplets
  > are going to break. One would have to do MacBinary encoding of the items
  > in the tar archive. It's probably better to only put text files in the
  > .tar, that still allows search engines and such to operate.

How difficult would it be "to do MacBinary encoding of the items"?
Excuse my ignorance, I do not have a Mac.

FYI, MakeMaker on UNIX lets the developer say 'make dist' and a
complete tar.gz file is produced that is ready for shipping. Would it
be possible to supply such an option for the Mac programmer?

I fear if we leave the path of "one module one distribution file", we
complicate CPAN in an unnecessary manner.

andreas