Re: Looking for a complete grepmail package

* David Coppit <[email protected]> [2005-06-05 10:01]:
> 
> Think about the alternative for a sec. Every distribution has a copy
> of every module that it needs, wasting space, creating versioning
> problems, making reuse hard, etc.

I would agree that it would be wasteful, but as for the versioning
problems I'd have to disagree.  If five different tools depend on
different versions of widget A, then versioning problems will emerge
when one tool upgrades widget A to a version that breaks another tool.
By including lower level modules with a distribution versioning
problems are gone.  So it's a trade-off between a messy installation,
and a messy installation procedure.

> Dan't solution is the best one. You can even tell the CPAN module
> not to prompt you when it wants to install dependent
> modules. (There's also CPAN2, a newer alternative to CPAN.)

I agree - but only when the user is aware of it.  The documentation is
leading users on an impractical scavenger hunt, and also gives no
expectation on what's ahead.. like those endless web surveys w/out a
progress indicator.  A good package manager is essential here.  CPAN
is okay, but definately has its idiosyncracies.  I'll have to give
CPAN2 a whirl.


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