Subject: Re: Perl version support

From: [email-masked] (Randal L. Schwartz)
Date: 23 Nov 2005 11:59:30 -0800

>>>>> "Junio" == Junio C Hamano <[email-masked]> writes:

Junio> I think the target market is people who use whatever POSIXy
Junio> systems for their own work.  To them, git and its dependencies
Junio> are merely tools to get their job done, and while they might be
Junio> capable and even willing to match the version requirements if it
Junio> is absolutely necessary, they'd rather spend their time on what
Junio> they do best (i.e. write software or documentation or whatever,
Junio> whose changes are to be managed by git), than installing or
Junio> upgrading base software just to satisfy git.  And I'd like to
Junio> see their time spent on what they do best, instead of caring and
Junio> feeding of git, too.

Yes, this is why I keep pointing out GNU tools being used instead of
POSIXy versions. :)  Mostly because they break on either my Darwin
laptop or my OpenBSD host server.

Junio> So in that sense, excluding 75% of people with "5.8 only" is not
Junio> acceptable at all, and covering 75% with "5.6 or better" might
Junio> be good enough, at least as a starter.

I think we're in agreement.

>> If you'd like, I can review all the Perl code with a tool that
>> determines the minimum Perl version, and provide patches to bring the
>> code to 5.5 level.

Junio> If it is not too much trouble, I'd appreciate it, at least the
Junio> first half that can be done without taking too much of your time.
Junio> Is it a mechanical "lint" like thing, that says "line 47 you
Junio> have list form of pipe open -- that's 5.8 and better"?

The "perlver" tool installed with the "Perl::MinimumVersion" module
from the CPAN will do about 80% of it.  The other 20% are things
that I can use my brain for.

-- 
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