[Module-build-general] ANNOUNCE: CPAN-MakeMaker-0.10

[Brian I. <in...@tt...>]

Ken and friends,

FYI. (NOTE: Even though this seems like a competitive module, I
really think that Module::Build and CPAN::MakeMaker are somewhat
orthoganal. I'm looking forward to working together. There is a good
chance that these modules could nicely complement each other. Let the
thinking begin :)

Cheers, Brian

CPAN/MakeMaker version 0.10
===========================

The module ExtUtils::MakeMaker is familiar to everybody. It's on the
first line of every Makefile.PL of every module distribution on CPAN.

The good thing about ExtUtils::MakeMaker is that it is powerful,
featureful, flexible, cross-platform and on virtually every installation
of Perl 5. The bad thing about this legacy workhorse is that the Perl
community is crippled to significantly improve it. Any features added
now can only enhance the current release of Perl. Authors would shun new
features anyway, because their modules could not be used in earlier
versions of Perl that account for the overwhelming majority of
installations.

Unfortunately, ExtUtils::MakeMaker is also stuck with a suboptimal
interface for new Perl authors. Writing a good Makefile.PL requires an
unnecessary level of expertise. Although anything is possible, some
seemingly simple tasks (like distributing scripts) involve a lot of
setup. Complicating the matter is the fact that there is no API for
accessing many of the powerful internals of ExtUtils::MakeMaker.

CPAN::MakeMaker changes everything.

This module is a drop-in replacement for ExtUtils::MakeMaker.
CPAN::MakeMaker works exactly like its legacy counterpart, but it makes
a lot of simple things easier, and some harder things possible.

CPAN::MakeMaker is a self-distributing module. Only the people who want
to create a Perl module or script distribution need to install it. The
first time you run your Makefile.PL, CPAN::MakeMaker will attach itself
to your distribution. The people who end up installing your distribution
don't even need to have into on their system at all. It just works.

You should be able to switch any of your existing module distributions
to CPAN::MakeMaker by simply changing the line:

    use ExtUtils::MakeMaker;

to:

    use CPAN::MakeMaker;

And then run the command 'perl Makefile.PL'. Everything should
just work as before, but now you can take advantage of
CPAN::MakeMaker's additional features. See the CPAN::MakeMaker
documentation for more details.

Make the Switch!

NEW FEATURES

    0.10:
      - Initial Release

INSTALLATION

To install this module type the following:

   perl Makefile.PL
   make
   make test
   make install

COPYRIGHT AND LICENCE

Copyright (C) 2002 Brian Ingerson

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the same terms as Perl itself.