[ic] [interchange] Fix potential "use of uninitialized value" if called during startup

Jon Jensen jon at endpoint.com
Tue Jun 27 02:48:50 UTC 2017


On Tue, 27 Jun 2017, Peter wrote:

> On 27/06/17 11:06, Jon Jensen wrote:
>> Please explain how it limits our userbase to require a Perl version that
>> is available in every supported distro release.
>
> Should I point out now that RHEL 5 is currently supported by Red Hat
> with an ELS subscription and will be until the end of November 2020 and
> that this comes with perl 5.8.8?

Sure. And how many actual RHEL 5 + extra paid ELS subscriptions do you 
work with?

CentOS 5 and normal RHEL are the past.

>> Who is actually using a public-facing website on an unsupported Linux 
>> version, and why should we hold back Interchange for them?
>
> I'm not and I'm really don't have a personal issue with this change, but 
> given that IC 5 is currently in a maintenance support stage, we should 
> be focusing more on supporting existing installs rather than enabling a 
> lot of future work on this.  I would like to see a push to get more 
> people started on IC 6 and get a stable release with a decent set of 
> instructions out for that.  IC 6 is where we should be looking for 
> forward momentum, IC 5 should keep backwards compatibility, support for 
> bug and especially security fixes and the occasional new feature where 
> we can do so without breaking existing installs.

Interchange 6 has nothing to do with Interchange 5, just as Perl 6 has 
nothing to do with Perl 5.

I deal with dozens of active Interchange 5 sites. I deal with zero 
Interchange 6 sites, and don't see that changing in the foreseeable 
future.

The reality now is that Interchange 5 is complete and has a large 
userbase, and Interchange 6 is incomplete and has very few users. You 
don't put the old thing out to pasture till the new thing is mature. 
Again, the lessons of Perl 6 vs. 5 apply here.

Interchange 5 needs to continue to adapt and evolve for years to come 
because it's actually used by real businesses. That includes the core.

Sure, we can make extra work dealing with old versions' syntax and extra 
testing. But I don't think we have the resources to burn on it.

Jon


-- 
Jon Jensen
End Point Corporation
https://www.endpoint.com/



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