The Gecko isn't just for Windows anymore.
I must have missed the news from ActiveState that ActivePerl now runs on Mac OS X. Actually, it's now on Windows, Linux, Solaris, HP-UX, and AIX too. I guess I should have figured ActivePerl had made it to the Mac when Komodo did, but I never thought to actually use it.
I've now installed it, and I see that it comes with the Mac::Carbon and Mac::Glue module, along with a lot of other Mac::* stuff. Very cool. I'll have to wait to play with it. I was just checking some facts for a Komodo article in the next issue of The Perl Review , so I can't get too distracted right now.
And hey, AIX but no FreeBSD? :)
Re:Loaded with Irony too
gozer on 2007-09-03T03:32:49
Certainly somewhat ironic, but there is also a purely technical reason. To provide forward binary compatible PPM packages, the PPM system is building it's packages using as close to the earliest ActivePerl available on that platform as possible.
That means ActivePerl 813 (5.8.7) for OS X, and ActivePerl 806 (5.8.0) on Win32.
It also explains the better CPAN coverage (5.8.0 vs. 5.8.7)
Re:Loaded with Irony too
Alias on 2007-09-04T03:41:41
That's not a technical reason, that's a business reason.
Sacrificing most the usful modules on CPAN to maintain backwards with 5-10 year old legacy version of Perl for what I assume is contractual reasons (correct me if I'm wrong here) is hardly a technical decision, or if it is, it's a bad technical decision.
On ActivePerl Win32 you end up with.
No PPI, or anything that uses it.
No POE, or anything that uses it.
No WWW::Mechanize, or anything that uses it.
No Params::Util (so there goes almost everything I've written in the last several years other than the::Tiny modules)
No Class::DBI or DBIx::Class.
No Template Toolkit.
No DateTime.
No Params::Validate.
No Test::Builder::Tester, so more than half of Test:: is dead...
No Scalar::Util::refaddr, or Scalar::Util::weaken
Why? Because SOMEWHERE a decision was made to retain binary support for 5.8.0 and break Scalar::Util, which breaks ANYTHING remotely useful.
It's just now there's no longer anything left TO support.
I mean, have you TRIED to use ActivePerl 5xx on a Win32 machine with no compiler and only using PPM and get something useful done?
Do the ActivePerl developers eat their own dogfood?
Excuse me for sounding a little bitter about this, I had high hopes when you were hired.
But these days I consider ActivePerl Win32 8xx to be damaged beyond repair. Which is why we needed to create Strawberry Perl.
Re:Little use for FreeBSD
Alias on 2007-09-04T04:12:22
Indeed, kudos to FreeBSD, who currently hold by a wide margin the record for the best and most current CPAN coverage.
