Re: Support for old Perl versions

From: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
Date: May 31, 2008, 12:32 UTC
Message-ID: <alpine.DEB.1.00.0805311328040.13507@racer.site.net>
In-Reply-To: <20080531121755.GL593@machine.or.cz>

Hi,

On Sat, 31 May 2008, Petr Baudis wrote:

Show 17 quoted lines

> On Sat, May 31, 2008 at 12:50:14PM +0100, Johannes Schindelin wrote:
> > On Fri, 30 May 2008, Lea Wiemann wrote:
> > 
> > > I'm honestly not too keen on sacrificing time (or code prettiness) 
> > > on 5.6 compatibility, so if there are no reasons besides the memory 
> > > leak to move away from throw/catch, perhaps we can just keep using 
> > > it?
> > 
> > I think your opinion would change dramatically if you were stuck on a 
> > platform with Perl 5.6.  In general, I deem it not nice to sacrifice 
> > backwards compatibility just because _you_ do not need it.
> 
>   let's get some perspective here: 5.6.1 was released on 2001-Apr-08. 
> 5.8.0 followed on 2002-Jul-18.  Is there anyone on the list who _is_ 
> stuck on a platform with Perl 5.6 _and_ uses Git on it? Heck, we are 
> even approaching GNU Interactive Tools 4.3.20 release here, walking that 
> much back.

I think this is not an interesting question. Those stuck with Perl 5.6 are most likely not those who lurk on this list.

Sure, we could just require users to upgrade to Linux, newest glibc and everything and be done. We could also require our users to stick their fingers where the sun don't shine.

The really interesting question is: is the time of a single developer (who gets all the upsides of requiring a certain setup) worth the hassle and pain of possibly more than one person getting all the _downsides_?

In the case that started this thread, I would not hesitate a single microsecond to answer "No, hell no".

Hth, Dscho