http://qs321.pair.com?node_id=1213103


in reply to why isn't cpan like npm?

Hi, let me try to answer some of these points, if I've misunderstood what you're asking please correct me.

"I fear using CPAN because of past experience having to go through tens of minutes of questions in command line before I hopefully can get to entering command line"

You don't have to do this. The first time (or if you do o conf init within cpan), you'll be presented with:

CPAN.pm requires configuration, but most of it can be done automatical +ly. If you answer 'no' below, you will enter an interactive dialog for eac +h configuration option instead. Would you like to configure as much as possible automatically? [yes]

"at which point it tells me my MinGW ran out of memory, and I can't use it on this particular system."

If MinGW is running out of memory consider freeing some up. cpanm has several advantages, it's smaller, faster and works well in low memory (< 512MB) situations. In short, I'd recommend cpanm over cpan regardless of available resources.

"with very rare module not working being easy to ask for feedback on Github."

Each perl module will either have an RT queue, a github repo or contact details for the author listed. Failing that you could ask for help in a forum such as this. The barrier for participation is low IMHO.

"2. Why is JSON so popular if Perl already had the same concepts long before JS existed."

Again, I'm not sure I understand what you mean here, please correct me if I'm going in the wrong direction. JSON is an open standard data format, Perl is a programming language. Consider the use cases for each different. One advantage of a wildly used open format is that you don't have to be a programmer to quickly get to grips with it. This is helpful to people using a tool (think configuration/data storage) or integrating applications with one another.

"Why is there so few Perl versions for windows,"

A lot of people used to roll their own, but honestly, since Strawberry came along, unless you had a very good reason to do so, I wouldn't bother :P It just makes life under windows so much easier. steveb has mentioned his tool for automating builds.

As an aside, no package management tool is without issue: Programmers were left staring at broken builds and failed installations on Tuesday after someone toppled the Jenga tower of JavaScript.. (Ignore that people using a module to pad a string),You can resurrect any deleted GitHub account name. And this is why we have trust issues, Malicious code in the Node.js npm registry shakes open source trust model.