Re: Perl 5 Module List
Jack Shirazi - BIU (js@bison.lif.icnet.uk)
Thu, 2 Mar 95 11:44:10 GMT
> With all this discussion on the perl 5 library, what is happening to the
> perl 4 version. Has someone created a better FTP module for it,
> say one which allows `HEAD' requests to return if the file/directory
> exists and what its date is etc? Or at least does NOT save to a
> file and returning a fake html document? :-( What about a gopher module?
The ftp module was only an alpha release (I haven't heard that its gone further).
I was hoping that someone who was actually using it would finish it off.
I am only intending to do Perl5 development myself. And there is no
real reason not to move to 5.001 when it comes out shortly - most of the
bugs in 5.000 were pretty esoteric anyway, and it has very few incompatibilities
with 4.036.
The saving to a file happens because I used Spafford/Sundstrom's ftplib
which does this - there was no option as far as I remember to not do this.
Rather than read the file and pipe it back, I thought it best just to
return the file location. If you want this change, your best bet is to
mail David Sundstrom <sunds@lobby.ti.com> to let ftplib have the option
of delivering the input to a callback or some such. Or the ftplib
could be hacked.
HEAD should be fairly simple (famous last words :-). I'll print out
the module and look at it on the way home - if HEAD support is quick
and easy I'll add it. Don't hold your breath though.
> It would be good for this library to be continued, especially as it will
> be sometime before people leave the well defined (home sweet home)
> environment of perl4.036. Not to mention that this is the version with
> published books and guides and is being shipped.
Well all the good stuff is being developed for 5. I don't see why I or
anyone else should deliberately stunt themselves. 5 makes an enormous
number of things easier (not least creating a HTML parser).