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Moin,
On Wednesday 14 March 2007 05:06:59 (Andreas J. Koenig) via RT wrote:
Show quoted text> Queue: Math-BigInt
> Ticket <URL:
http://rt.cpan.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=25299 >
>
> >>>>> On Tue, 13 Mar 2007 13:45:53 -0400, " via RT"
> >>>>> <bug-Math-BigInt@rt.cpan.org> said:
> >
> > <URL:
http://rt.cpan.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=25299 >
> >
> > Intention. Well, half.
> >
> > If you install Math::BigInt into an empty system, then all is well,
> > you will install updated versions of Math::BigRat, BigInt::FastCalc
> > and bignum afterwards and their newest versions cope with BigInt.
>
> Math-BigInt-1.80 declares that it depends on bignum 0.19. So "empty"
> system (whatever this means) or not, apparently you cannot install
> Math::BigInt 1.80 without installing bignum 0.19 and thus Math::BigInt
> 1.79 first.
- - From my Makefile.PL:
check_minimum_version ('Math::BigInt::FastCalc' => 0.12);
check_minimum_version ('Math::BigInt::GMP' => 1.19);
check_minimum_version ('Math::BigRat' => 0.17);
check_minimum_version ('bignum' => 0.19);
recommends 'Math::BigRat' => 0.17;
recommends 'Math::BigInt::GMP' => 1.19;
recommends 'bignum' => 0.19;
sub check_minimum_version
{
my ($module, $version) = @_;
my $v; eval " require $module; \$v = \$${module}::VERSION;";
# if the module is installed, but outdated, add it to the requirements
if (defined $v && $v < $version)
{
requires $module => $version;
}
}
The intention is to NOT require bignum unless it is already installed. If my
code is broken in this regard, please tell me, because as far as I can see
a non-installed bignum should generate no dependecy on bignum 0.19.
On an empty system, bignum should not be required.
[snip]
Show quoted text> > However, if you install first an older version of Math::BigInt and
> > all the other modules, and *then* upgrade Math::BigInt to 1.80,
> > things might break because the other modules do not get updated.
>
> You seem to indicate that 1.79 or 1.80 broke some API?
There have been a few additions of new methods, and older math-libraries
without these methods are not loaded. Plus there were some critical
bugfixes in the other libraries.
If you install just Math::BigInt, the other libraries are still borked.
Hence the try to get FastCalc upgraded.
bignum and BigRat are not that critical in this regard, but if there are old
versions on the system detected, I just threw bignum and BigRat in for good
measure.
Show quoted text> > The dependencies are set so that if you install Math::BigInt 1.80 and
> > it detects an outdated bignum et. al. if "forces" you to upgrade
> > these first.
> >
> > A side-effect of this is if you have Math::BigInt 1.78 or older, you
> > might need to first install 1.79, then bignum 0.19, then Math::Bigint
> > 1.80.
> >
> > I don't think this can be avoided though.
>
> If it cannot be avoided, please explain why. The CHANGES file says
> about 1.79 "Fix typos".
The change occured in 1.78, but I had to release 1.79 because I forgot to
include the typo-fixes from bleadperl in 1.78.
Show quoted text> So how is it unavoidable that bignum requires
> Math::BigInt 1.79 and cannot run with, say 1.78?
bignum can run with 1.77 etc. But if you install 1.80, the already installed
bignum libraries SHOULD (not "must", just "should") be updated, too.
FastCalc can run with 1.77. But if you install 1.78, 1.79 or 1.80, the
already installed FastCalc library MUST be updated, too. (However, I forgot
about this fact and this lead to a few problems).
Show quoted text> > The only other option (when we detect that the other modules are
> > outdated upon Math::BigInt upgrade) would be to abord the
> > Makefile.pl, but as you are well aware, there is a certain toolchain
> > which can't cope with that :-) so I came up with this clever scheme
> > as a workaround.
> >
> > Please tell me if this can be improved or simplified.
>
> If the "modules" are so tightly coupled that they all have to be
> upgraded at once, I think they should be distributed in a single
> distribution file that upgrades them all at once.
That would be the other option, but it also means that you couldn't f.i.
install Math::BigInt without a C-compiler. Which was the reason why the
libraries were seperated in the first place.
Actually, the libraries aren't that closely coupled, I just made a few
mistakes when releasing packages and wanted to avoid that people get stuck
with old versions on their system.
I have said it many times in private emails and I say it again here:
The system to declare dependencies is seriously lacking a few things that
authors need to express. Just being able to declare "I need foo minimum
version 1.00" isn't enough for all the practical situatins that arise, like
that Foo 1.00 and 1.01 work, 1.02 is borked and 1.03 not yet released.
Likewise, it is impossible to say "if you update this package, also update
these packages". And that is what my "hack" in Makefile.PL tries to
acomplish. Please note that this dependency can't even expressed in
META.yml, so all I can do is check it at run time in Makefile.PL and act
according if the situation arises.
In "real" packaging systems, you just specify the requirements and
dependencies (needs package X, Y but conflicts with Z, U and W) and the
system does the rest. Unfortunately, for CPAN the dependencies can only be
described in a very simple matter, which leads to needless code duplication
inside Makefile.PL to craft this stuff on. And sometimes that extra code is
even buggy :)
If my way of handling this situation is not doing what I outlined above,
please tell me so I can fix it.
All the best,
Tels
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