use Perl

• Virtual servers (Score:1)

  by melo (332)

  If you can use them, I would recommend a virtual server.
  
  I use Parallels on my mac, but vmware should work the same.
  
  Create a image with a bare minimal installation of your target OS (I keep 3 or 4 around), and in the final test, boot a pristine copy of it, and try to install your app.
  
  Not only you'll detect missing CPAN dependencies, but also missing package dependencies that you didn't even know you needed.
  
  For complex projects, it really tests your deployment documentation :)
  
  Best regards,

  --
  life is short
  • Re:Virtual servers (Score:2)

    by Ovid (2709) on 2007.07.31 5:43 (#56622) Homepage Journal

    While that sounds like a fantastic idea (I already have Parallels on my MacBook, along with Vista), I suspect it's a bit more than most developers are looking for, or are able to implement. Ease of use is of paramount importance here. If we can get an 80% solution with 20% of the work, that would be a huge win.

    Of course, if you want to write the code which automates setting all of this up, I'm sure folks would consider it :)

    Reply to This

    Parent

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Alias (5735)

      qemu debian image with every single Perl pre-installed. :)
      
      Product of the PITA work, comes in handy from time to time.
      
      http://pitatesting.net/guests/x86-linux-debian-sarge-perl.tar.gz [pitatesting.net]
      
      Warning: About 600 meg in size, expands to a 4gig disk image.
      
      Overkill, ok maybe :)
      
      
    • Re: (Score:2)

      by drhyde (1683)

      I use Parallels virtual machines for smoke-testing CPAN. I'm normally happy to tell people how to get at a guest account on those VMs if they want to test their modules against minimal installs of various versions of perl.

      So far, I've given access to everyone who's asked. I'd probably only refuse for those very few people who I know abuse community resources. The minimal barrier to entry is that you have to email me to get access.