Python/Perl Popularity (Re: A Mountain of Perl...)

[tom__98 at my-deja.com]

In article <zoqzlazr.fsf at dan.resnet.rochester.edu>,
  dan at cgsoftware.com wrote:
> I also don't see why Tom praises the CPAN module so much.
> My main problem with it is
> "
> 203 installed modules have no parseable version number
> "
> Yet i haven't installed any modules for PERL on my own.

I have only used CPAN, not looked into how it is implemented,
but versioning seems to work pretty well: the CPAN tool
will actually check for updated modules and recommend upgrades.
BTW, modules also all come with documentation in a standard format,
as well as a standard set of regression tests.  There is also
some MD5 checksum test, although I'm not sure how much security
against Trojan horses that actually provides.  I recommend giving
it a try; it's an important, widely used example of a
software distribution system.

Just to reiterate: I think CPAN accounts significantly for
the popularity of Perl.  It works pretty well, it's useful, and
I'd like to have something similar for Python.  With something
like CPAN, it's much easier to use non-standard modules and
shared one's scripts and programs with others.  I realize that
there is a SIG and that some work has been done on this for
Python; I think that's great, and the sooner it comes out, the
better.

Tom.


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