While reading this, I had one of those silly ideas, that I don't know if anybody could find it useful or even interesting : build an on-line database of the perls shipped by various OS vendors. More precisely, archive the outputs of perl -V and perl '-V:.*', the packaging method if applicable (RPM, RTE...), date of release, vendor patches, set of standard modules that are distributed separately from the core package, set of additional modules that may be included...
I've seen a node recently on Perlmonks trying to establish the same core data, is this any help distributions and perl?
Re:Perlmonks...?
rafael on 2003-05-12T12:59:53
Well, what I had in mind is supposed to include much more data. For example, RedHat 9 comes with an heavily modified 5.8.0. And compilation options : what distros provide large file support, or 64bit-ness, or threads, since when, etc.Re:Perlmonks...?
ajt on 2003-05-12T13:24:41
I didn't think it would be enough detail, but it may be a start. As you'll see it seemed a popular enough as a concept, and I think a lot of people would lke it done - some may even help.
Are you thinking of building a module, similar to Module::Core, so it's available to Perl module developers, as well as in a on line form?
I think you are right in thinking that it would be a very useful resource for everyone. You could also include details on other binary distribution formats such as the various ActiveState builds for example.
I suppose you could build a simple Perl script that queried the installed Perl, and sent it's details back, along with it's OS details, and any user comments, similar to the cpantest script?
