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Makefile.PL versus Module::Build 9 Comments More | Login | Reply /

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  • Part of the impetus of Module::Build is to ensure ExtUtils::MakeMaker dies a much needed death. Those who haven't had to do serious hacking on EMM often say that this is a waste of time. Those who have had to do serious hacking on EMM, particularly when they know their hack must support a plethora of systems they don't have access to (really, how many people have a VMS box handy?), absolutely don't want to touch EMM any more. Since much of EMM is trying to build a makefile which many different platforms and many different versions of make support (all, naturally, with subtle differences), how many people wanting EMM can say they are qualified to comment in this area? Trying to work out all of the hideous makefile issues is a nightmare and is a constant source of bugs. Further, adding new features to EMM is very difficult, but it tends to be much easier for MB. Thus, I wouldn't want to encourage people to say "I'm going to prefer the Makefile.PL over the Build.PL."

    For more discussion, you can read Schwern's rant on the matter [perl.org] or a Perlmonks thread on the matter [perlmonks.org] (and one where Schwern loses his temper and uses very work unfriendly language. Frankly, I understand where he's coming from).

    • Funny. I'm responsible for at least two Schwern rants about EU::MM. Curious.

      My real 0XBEEF with M::B and M::I probably stems from three things: 1) the seemingly endless times of cpanp/cpan fuckering up automated testing and deps, and 2) Apache-Test under M::B, which has it's own set of issues and 3) Catalyst installs post EU::MM. Yes, these are not M::B/M::I's problems, but when I can stick to EU::MM and avoid those issues, well, then there's still no reason to declare EU::MM dead for all people.

      Since I'd r
    • There's a sensible distribution of work though. There aren't many people who need to hack on EU::MM - just a select few. For 99.99% of people it works just fine. In most cases where people try to do stuff out of the ordinary with it they probably shouldn't have tried that in the first place.

      I'm still not convinced M::B is worth it (and yes, I've read the rants) for end users - neither module authors nor those installing modules. Seems M::B is worth it for Schwern, and maybe the select few others who wanted

      • Personally, I use M::B, and just throw in create_makefile_pl => 'traditional' in the Build.PL. I use only plain-jane features of M::B, so the modules I upload will work for any user, and come the day that M::B becomes the new officially sanctioned Way To Do It, I can just flip a switch and get rid of the Makefile.PL.

        Best of all worlds, if you ask me.

      • I've hacked on EUMM (to add tests) and I've written cross-platform Makefiles. Maybe that puts me in a narrow group of people and makes my opinion suspect. I don't know; I like to think it gives me specific reasons to hate EUMM.

        If my build process has to do anything other than copying a pure-Perl module into blib/lib, I would rather do it in Perl than figure out how to write Perl to write cross-platform, cross-shell Makefiles. It's not that I can't figure out how to make it work, it's that every time I

        • You don't touch the Makefile though. You just do WriteMakefile(%params) and it's all done for you. I don't quite get the argument.

          • Let me be very concrete then. When writing the build process for Embed::Parrot, I wanted to use parrot to compile a PIR file into PBC. I want to do this as part of the build process before the test process, so I overrode ACTION_build in Build.PL. I assume, from writing other makefiles, that adding to the test target is the way to go with EUMM.

            How do I do this with EUMM? I've skimmed the manpage backwards and forwards and I don't see an easy way to do it without touching the Makefile.

    • I'm sure all of that is true, but it's orthogonal to my point, which is that the installer doesn't know if the module author is an enlightened Module::Build user or a dinosaur who only maintains the EUMM system for his module and lets the other route decay. As an installer, I could care less which system is used as long as it just works. :)

      --
      J. David works really hard, has a passion for writing good software, and knows many of the world's best Perl programmers

    • My response is confusing because when I said "installer," I meant, "installing admin," not "installing program."

      --
      J. David works really hard, has a passion for writing good software, and knows many of the world's best Perl programmers
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