The need for a unified numerical array object (was: [Numpy-discussion] Numeric3)

[RJ]

At 10:40 AM 2/6/2005 +0100, konrad.hinsen at laposte.net wrote:
>On 05.02.2005, at 17:28, RJ wrote:
>
>How does CPAN handle external dependencies? For example, what does CPAN do with a GTK interface for Perl when it finds that GTK is not available on the machine? Or when the package requires a Fortran compiler and none is installed?

It can fail for truly external requirements; module/bundle authors are largely responsible for declaring dependencies, and of course, they must be via CPAN, such as
http://cpan.org/authors/id/M/ML/MLEHMANN/Gtk-Perl-0.7009.tar.gz
among 7,582 others.

I mainly used ActivePerl's Perl Package Manager but apparently there is now a CPANPLUS.

http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/docs/ActivePerl/lib/CPAN.html
is the best resource for the guts of it.
In the above link, see:
The four CPAN::* Classes: Author, Bundle, Module, Distribution
and
POPULATE AN INSTALLATION WITH LOTS OF MODULES

A page search for "depend" points out what I think you're interested in, such as
" Please note, CPAN.pm does not know the dependency tree in advance and cannot sort the queue of things to install in a topologically correct order. It resolves perfectly well IFF all modules declare the prerequisites correctly with the PREREQ_PM attribute to MakeMaker. For bundles which fail and you need to install often, it is recommended sort the Bundle definition file manually. It is planned to improve the metadata situation for dependencies on CPAN in general, but this will still take some time."

At least here I didn't have to read any ($q*=2)+=$f=!fork;
As a second-place "winner" described:
"the winning program was not nearly as confusing as mine---it was actually very simple. If you fixed the indentation, it was quite straightforward. My program is difficult to understand even if you fix it up with good formatting and reasonable variable names. In the solution file I provided, I expanded it in this way, and it still took me about 2500 words to explain what was going on."

Ray Schumacher 
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