RE: larger issue (Re: Linux install misses Tk)

["Bharat Mediratta" <bmediratta@xxxxxxxxx>]

Howdy.  This is an amusing thread, so I'll contribute some history.

When I first thought about writing PilotManager, I seriously considered
writing it in Java.  However, it didn't take me very long to realize
that Perl was a much better language for the product.  Because Perl
doesn't have Sun's massive marketing engine behind it, it has not
achieved
the mass-market awareness that Java has.  Many people fear or denigrate
Perl because they haven't taken the time to use and understand it.
Once you truly learn it, you'll never want to go back to another
language.
But I digress.  In the beginning the decision was simple.  Java was 
an immature language (1.1 had just been released and 1.1.1 was about 3
weeks away).  There was no serial port support, no calendar support,
the language was changing very rapidly, the JVMs were all very buggy
and there was no binding for pilot-link.

Now, in retrospect, I'm still pretty happy that I wrote it in Perl.
I don't even want to THINK how hard it would have been to write the
SyncCM module in Java.  The complexity of the data processing involved
in developing that conduit (which, of course, I had to port from 
the old CM format to the new CDE format) would have been horrendous
to write in Java.  Perl with its fast regular expression, runtime
binding, runtime evaluation model was way easier.  If I had written it
in Java, it would have taken at least a few months longer for me to
develop it (and I may have just given up from frustration).

The issue that people are reporting with dependencies is really
pretty minor.  What't fault here is that the documentation on
installing PilotManager is not up to snuff.  It needs to be updated
with a matrix to explain how to download and install the various
pieces necessary to make it all work.  I'm not saying that this isn't
a problem (because it's been a thorn in my side all along) but it
doesn't justify the (rather large) effort of porting the whole thing
to Java where we'll have a host of Java related issues (speed, 
stability, native compatability with CDE, etc).

The beautiful thing about PilotManager is that each and every user
has the entire source code.  Take this as an opportunity to stretch
your mind and learn a little Perl, then contribute to the project.
Who knows, you may even find that you like Perl just a little bit.
Now that I'm not really working on it anymore, you can be reasonably
certain that Alan can't keep the whole thing going by himself.  However
if everybody with a bright idea contributes some diffs, maybe we can
make this a true collaboration that will exceed the sum of its parts.

-Bharat


> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-pilotmgr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:owner-pilotmgr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Platibus
> Sent: Thursday, January 15, 1998 9:42 AM
> To: Martin Lohner
> Cc: Marco Kooyman - Desktop Support Engineer - ENS BeNeLux;
> pilotmgr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: larger issue (Re: Linux install misses Tk)
> 
> 
> Half a year ago I asked Bharat why he hadn't written Pilotmanager in 
> Java. The main
> reason was the support for the serial port. I haven't looked at the 
> pilotmanager
> sources in a while, but given the problems people report with with 
> software package
> dependencies (Tcl, Perl, CDE), wouldn't it be worth to take a deep 
> breath and port
> the whole thing to Java? That would settle it once and for all. Just 
> a thought. I'd
> be willing to contribute, but I don't know Perl that well.
> 
> Thomas
> 
> Martin Lohner wrote:
> 
> > Marco,
> >
> > > Could it be you are not running perl 5.00401?
> >
> > As you say, Redhat 5.0 comes with perl 5.00401, and that's what I 
> am running.
> >
> > Ok, I will check things out a bit more.
> >
> > Thanks for your help. --Martin
> >
> > > The package is compiled with perl5.00401.
> > >
> > > What you should to is try to make a link in
> > > pilotmgr/lib/perl5/i386-linux/5.00401 to whatever version of perl
you are
> > > running.
> > >
> > > For example:
> > >
> > > pilotmgr/lib/perl5/i386-linux/5.003 -> 5.00401
> > >
> > > If you run "perl PilotManager" it might show you need to link 
> perl to another
> > > version on your local system.
> > >
> > > Running redhat you can query to the rpm database as well to see,
what your
> > > perl version is. Redhat 5.0 (latest release) includes 5.00401.
> > >
> > > Kind regards,
> > >
> > > Marco.
> >
> >
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> 
> 
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