What's the push to require the latest Perl?

[Bill Cole]

On 15 Dec 2017, at 18:00 (-0500), Bill Cole wrote:

> In regards to https://trac.macports.org/ticket/55208 :
[...]
> Why would help2man demand the absolute latest Perl? Well, because the 
> Portfile says it does. However, in the real world, help2man is happy 
> with any perl since 5.8.
>
> Doing a 'port -y upgrade outdated' reveals that multiple ports are 
> threatening to demand perl5.26 if I try to upgrade them, like whois!? 
> Because it needs perl to build???
>
> This is insanity.

Well, I've managed to find an answer, after a fashion. It's pursuant to 
https://trac.macports.org/ticket/50512 which seems to indicate a 
consensus among those who were paying attention that fewer versions is 
better, with some people on the side of One True Perl and others 
suggesting alignment with the upstream policy of maintaining 2 major 
versions. It seems like both approaches are being followed, with some 
ports retaining the option of using 5.24 or 5.26 and others going to 
5.26-only.

If anyone involved in making MacPorts policy can explain this 
coherently, I'd greatly appreciate it.



-- 
Bill Cole
bill at scconsult.com or billcole at apache.org
(AKA @grumpybozo and many *@billmail.scconsult.com addresses)
Currently Seeking Steady Work: https://linkedin.com/in/billcole