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All the Perl that's Practical to Extract and Report

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Strawberry alpha 2 is looking great, so where to next? 7 Comments More | Login | Reply /

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  • Just out of curiosity, did you ever consider bundling some version of MS VC++? I mean, it's free now, right? Licensing issues? Perhaps a conversation with MS is in order.
    • Just out of curiosity, did you ever consider bundling some version of MS VC++?

      You're kidding, right? MS changes his mind faster than open source can track and may be really inconvenient to make arrangements with. It is annoying as Oracle - have you tried the hassle of installing DBD::Oracle via ppm with ActiveState Perl? Read the license, agree, download 18M, something went bad, do it all again, and have fun. I think that's their lemma.

      • No, I'm not kidding. I've got it on good authority that MinGW does not work on 64 bit Windows, and it doesn't look like it will anytime soon. What happens to those users?
        • I'd like to see more evidence of this before changing anything, like reports some people that have actually tried it, or mailing list entries, or something more concrete than hearsay.

          FWIW, I've got Vista installed here on my flatmate's laptop, and everything seems to work just fine. I can't say if it's running in 32 or 64 bit mode though.

          Do you have any details on the "doesn't work and won't any time soon"?

          The big problem with the Microsoft stuff is that it isn't open source, we have very little control over it. Also, I just found the following on a website that tracks Win32 C compilers.

          It's also HUGE. On top of the compiler, you also need the platform SDK, which is anywhere up to a gigabyte once unpacked, and requires a seperate installation process. And so on, and so forth. Making people install all this stuff seperately is a nightmare, and everybody hates it.

          The current setup means ordinary Perl users who aren't familiar with C at all can just download one file, and then install a complete working Perl setup in about 15 seconds.

          This is what people really love. That there is only two steps. 1. Download installer 2. Run installer. No seperate instructions, no "Grab this from Microsoft's website", and no need to think. It Just Works.

          And frankly, I have little interest in talking to a commercial company about redistribution deal unless I absolutely have to, because I have better things to do than deal with legal/commercial overheads for something I don't make any money from.

          But your comment about 64 bit does have me interested, and I shall test it and see the first chance I get.
          • Ignore "Also, I just found the following on a website that tracks Win32 C compilers."

            I had found a comment on Visual C Express, and realised it was wrong, since you can get just the compiler.
          • I'm not arguing with regards to size and convenience - I understand you concerns.

            Regarding the 64 bit issue, I'm taking the word of Austin Ziegler, who has had to deal with these issues for Ruby and Windows. He's gone down the MinGW road and gave up. Now that I've re-read his post, though, he does admit that he hasn't tried for a while.

            However, it's certainly worth checking out. If it does turn out to support 64 bit platforms (or not), that would prove to be useful information either way.

            http://gro [google.com]

            • I've done a bit of research on this problem, and from what I can see it's not impossible, merely a case of tuits, and it not being enough of a priority for enough people yet.

              Looking at all the comments, I think there just isn't enough pressure yet. And part of that is my "WinXP 64 bit is shite" feeling.

              So my suspicion is that as soon as Vista comes out, the pressure for 64 bit support will become huge, and by the looks there are so many large projects using MinGW now, that there will be enough people lookin
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