Curtis Jewell's Perl stuff

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world...
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
  —William Yates, The Second Coming

1. Strawberry Perl January 2010.
   
   It's been out for over a week - I really should start writing these release announcements beforehand. This is an "upgrade version" - The only new module is GDBM_File. There are a number of non-user-facing internals changes, however. Things just got too busy over the holidays to do the user-facing changes that were planned.
   
   5.10.1.1 is at: http://strawberry-perl.googlecode.com/files/strawberry-perl-5.10.1.1.msi
   Other releases are mentioned at: http://strawberryperl.com/releases.html
   



2. "Strawberry Perl plus Padre" 0.56.
   
   This is the new version of what has been previously called "Padre Standalone". In this case, it's been updated to the latest versions of both Strawberry Perl and Padre.
   
   http://strawberryperl.com/download/padre/strawberry-plus-padre-0.56.msi http://strawberryperl.com/download/padre/strawberry-plus-padre-0.56.zip
   


3. "Merge Module" for Strawberry Perl.
   
   We're starting to build a merge module that can be used in other Windows Installer packages. The infrastructure to do this was one of the things that got added to Strawberry Perl in this version.
   
   If you're wondering "What is a merge module?" - a merge module is a Windows Installer "sub-package" that can be included in other packages.
   
   More documentation about how to include Strawberry Perl in their own software will be posted within the next few days.

• Relocatability on install


• "Strawberry Professional"


• 64-bit versions


• perl 5.12.x (assuming it gets released soon enough)

1. We now provide 5.10.1 instead of 5.10.0 (5.8.9 is still available, as well.)


2. We now include DB_File, so that BioPerl will install.


3. Module::Signature and Crypt::SSLeay are now installed, as well as other crypto modules, so that we have support for signing CPAN modules (and checking the signature of CPAN modules) and for https: web sites.


4. We now include DBD::Pg and the Postgres client library, so that PostgreSQL databases can be used without any other software installed.


5. We now separate Strawberry-installed modules from the modules you install. Because of this, future versions may be able to not have to delete all the modules that you install.

Summary of my perl5 (revision 5 version 10 subversion 0) configuration:
  Platform:
    osname=MSWin32, osvers=5.1, archname=MSWin32-x86-multi-thread
    uname='Win32 strawberryperl 5.10.0.6 #1 Mon Jul 20 00:01:14 2009 i386'

Summary of my perl5 (revision 5 version 8 subversion 8) configuration:
  Platform:
    osname=MSWin32, osvers=5.0, archname=MSWin32-x86-multi-thread
    uname=''

use Config;

# ...

my $new_strawberry = $Config{myuname} =~ m{\AWin32 [ ] strawberryperl}msx;

• The largest update to Strawberry ever!
  
  
  
  • 4th-generation WiX-based toolkit Perl::Dist::WiX.
  
  
  • New .msi installer, allowing numerous improvements.
  
  
  • Installable across entire organisations via Active Directory.
  
  
  • Uninstall now removes environment values correctly.
  
  
  • Uninstall now removes post-install CPAN modules correctly.
  
  
  • Start menu now has cleaned up and correct icons.


• Big improvements to built-in modules.
  
  
  
  • All Perl 5.10.1 CPAN auto-upgrade features now included.
  
  
  • CPANPLUS is now pre-configured correctly (but not yet the default).
  
  
  • By popular demand, DBD::mysql is available in the default install.

• Strawberry Perl 5.10.0.6 plus a few module updates


• Padre 0.41 and its prerequisites


• Padre::Plugin::Perl6 0.55 and its prerequisites


• A test compile of Rakudo Perl 6 based on the Chicago release

1. One of the three top priorities for October is to make creating perl distributions for Windows even easier. How I intend to do that - I can't mention here just yet. I'm still mulling it over and talking to others about it. But come October, you may very well be able to install multiple "Strawberry-subclass" distributions without problems, and/or be able to include Strawberry easily in other Windows Installer files.


2. Top priority #2 is what I'm calling the "vendorperl" branch - the ability to put the modules installed by a perl distribution in a 'vendor' directory, as described in schwern's description of the difference between core/perl, vendor, and site.


3. Top priority #3: Making Strawberry relocatable, at least on a "drive" level.


4. Other capabilities and things that will probably be included are:
   
   
   
   
   • A script to allow easier use of the local::lib module by non-administrators (the .msi does require administrator access to install)
   
   
   • The installer will delete duplicate PATH entries from previous installations of Strawberry Perl.
   
   
   • Detection of other perl installs at install time.
   
   
   • WWW::Mechanize. (not neccessarily including it in Strawberry, but making sure it installs seamlessly. And it IS going into Satori.) Anybody who's tried to install it on Win32 knows what I mean. It's a FAQ. HTTP::Server::Simple needs to just work on Strawberry, at least, and then Mechanize will be easy.
   
   
   • Win32::Process and 5.8.9. For some reason, this combination is just fine in a base Perl::Dist::WiX, but Perl::Dist::Strawberry spits it back up pre-chewed. (it doesn't pass "dmake".)
   
   
   • Giving the building process more antlers than it already has. (Currently File::List::Object is the only part of the build process that has antlers. I'd like to get rid of the dependency on Object::InsideOut - it's lots slower creating 20000+ objects than Moose would be.)*
   
   
   • Factoring out the code backing the release tests into their own module, like I did with File::List::Object earlier.
   
   
   • There are a few issues with Portable that I'll see if I (or others) can take a swing at somehow.
   
   
   • I'd like to make BioPerl installable on Strawberry without too much pain.
   
   
   • Also, the Math::Pari installed on 5.8.9 is a 5.10.0 par. Oops. Teeth. (channeling the Men in Black.) NOW they tell me. Done.