endians

[Fairlight]

Confusious (Bill Campbell) say:
> >What are the odds that the C-less system has Perl, let alone Python?
> 
> Quite good I would think.  Even SCO now has perl standard on their systems
> (even though it's that communist plot, open source :-).

Yeah, but AIX didn't even have gzip/gunzip.

> I could get a lot of work done on a system with python or perl, and no C
> compiler if there were enough good binaries of open source software
> available (e.g. Fink on OS X).

I'd almost be tempted to agree with you (at least given perl) until I hit
the first time I needed to install a module.  If it's a plain module,
you can kludge around not having 'make', assuming you want to trust it
that way.  If it's an XS module though, you're just as stuck as you were
without a devkit in the first place unless you want to rewrite something
significant entirely in perl.  Think along the lines of XML::Parser,
Crypt::SSLeay, etc.  Not insignificant rewrites, by any stretch.

Hence, I stand by at least one of my assertions from circa 1993:  A *nix
system with no devkit is pretty much useless to me.  I fail to see the
point in such a scenario.  It's like having a car with no drivetrain--it's
pretty until you actually want to -do- something.

And the thing is, I'm -not- a huge user of 3rd party modules in perl.
Pretty much those two, occasionally Curses, and Spreadsheet::WriteExcel are
the only ones I bother with that aren't core, unless I'm doing GUI work,
in which case I need Tk as well.  In the latter case I'd need Tk libraries
to make the Tk module(s).  Ditto Curses.  But those are pretty much the
only non-core modules I generally bother with, so it's not like I'm a CPAN
junkie.  It's just that when you -need- that functionality and don't have
it, it's usually a total dealbreaker.  "Sure, pay for my cryptography
course, wait nine months, and pay me tens of thousands of dollars and I'll
be -happy- to rewrite SSL entirely in perl!"  Yup--THAT'LL happen.  :)

     !devkit == nearly_useless_paperweight

And one thing I can't abide is being given a task, but not the tools with
which to accomplish it--especially if you also can't get the permission or
resources to obtain and implement said tools.

mark->