Re: [MacPerl] libwww-perl-5.41 now available

[Vicki Brown <vlb@cfcl.com>]

At 17:18 -0800 12/21/98, Paul J. Schinder wrote:
> On Mon, Dec 21, 1998 at 04:59:54PM -0800, Vicki Brown wrote:
> } > } And will it be going up on CPAN soon?
> } >
> } > Not a chance.
> }
> } Given that CPAN is the -comprehensive_ Perl Archive Network, and your
> } account on pobox is just that, might the list be enlightened as to Why
>Not?
>
> (My account on pobox is just what???  pobox is a commercial mail/http
> redirection service.)

Your account on pobox is just an account, out in the hinterlands, where
people are not expected to look for software. It may be a "commercial
mail/http
redirection service" but it is NOT and  never will be "the well-known place
to look for all things perl".  The CPAN is.

This is a minor gripe of mine.  When I mention "Let's have a centralized
place to put MacPerl scripts/modules/code" I'm told "There is such a place.
It's the CPAN".

But the CPAN is _not_ such a place for MacPerl code when folks don't want
to use it.

So Paul's stuff is in Paul's account and Chris' stuff (soon to be remedied)
is in Chris' account and some things are in the MacPerl pages and much is
not in any centralized place...

and that gives me a bad case of the grumps.

> 1) I just submitted a patch to libwww-perl-5 to bring it full MacPerl
> support.  If Gisle accepts it, then it will be in CPAN, but in the
> standard distribution, where it belongs.

That will be nice.

> 2) I don't have a PAUSE id, and, although the process now takes little
> time, I'd still have to get one.

I don't personally accept this as a valid reason, but it's your reason not
mine. "I would have to register" is not, imo, a reason not to centralize
where people, especially _new_ people are always being TOLD to look.


> 3) Modules for MacPerl users should be distributed in a Mac format.

What is a "Mac format"?  StuffIt is a Mac app but I wouldn't call .sit "mac
format". Besides, StuffIt Expander can expand .tar.gz files; it can handle
.zip just fine. I've been downloading my Palm software in .zip format
because the #%@!&^@ servers are showing me .sit.hqx files as text on the
screen :-(

In other words:
> The two acceptable formats on PAUSE are gzip and zip,

and both of these are readily unpackable on a Mac if one has StuffIt
Expander enhanced with DropStuff w/ EE or Stuffit Deluxe.

> neither of which is that much of a problem for the experienced,
> but it adds an extra step and can confuse newbies.

Again in my opionion, I think the newbies are more likely to be confused by
being unable to find much of anything for MacPerl in the _Comprehensive_
Perl Archive Network than they are going to be by the need to upgrade to
DropStuff w/EE. They may be Perl newbies but that's no reason to assume
they are Mac newbies as well.

> 4) My ISP has good connectivity and doesn't have much downtime.  So
> the stuff is easily available.  There's no real advantage.

But not easily findable.  The centralized aspect of the CPAN is what's
important. That and the fact that it is mirrored world-wide, so someone in
Germany gets a German mirror.  Pobox is one ISP, in the States, and not
part of the CPAN.  I personally see a real advantage to MacPerl
module/script writers/porters getting their stuff into the CPAN.

Possibly no one else will agree with me, but then, I'm not unused to that
:-)

- Vicki
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