use Perl

• historical development (Score:1)

  by mr_bean (3802)

  Looking at the MOTIVATION section of
  Module::Build's man page, I don't think you see
  any of the concerns of the problem of
  installation as outlined here. It was a more
  limited fixing of the problem of make and EU::MM.
  
  When did the issue of the problems of software
  users as distinct from software developers start
  to arise? After the availability of CPAN.pm and
  so on made it even easier than it had been to
  install modules?
• When did the problem arise? (Score:1)

  by Alias (5735)

  Well, the problems have been there the whole time.
  
  The reason it hasn't come up sooner is that installer deficiencies of this nature are creeping problems.
  
  They build up gradually, and only start to impact strongly as the number of MB packages increases, and as the number of production versions of MB increases.
  
  As long as few people are using it, and it isn't changing quickly, you have a Pattern 1 situation. The installers don't break if the installer infrastructure is static.
  
  Add to that that most 9 out of 10,
• Not really talking about installers (Score:1)

  by dagolden (6584)

  I think this taxonomy is lacking because it confuses several different tasks:

  • Package management -- managing available/installed software and retrieving software to be installed from a repository
  • Installation -- putting pieces of code/library into OS/user-specific locations for later use
  • Configuration management -- telling installers how to do their jobs
  • Distribution creation -- creating bundles of code, configuration, and -- in some cases -- an installer
  • Authoring tools -- helping authors with non-distri