latexindent on ctan: hopeful restructuring

[Ken Moffat]

On Mon, Oct 24, 2022 at 03:16:46PM -0600, Karl Berry wrote:
> 
> However, Biber has a number of dependencies that are not part of
> standard Perl (IPC::Cmd, Log::Log4perl, List::AllUtils, maybe more).
> Users (of native TL) would have to install all such dependencies by hand
> (cpan install ...) before Biber could be run, which would surely induce
> yet more dependencies, site-specific problems, etc.
> 

*many* more :)  I've been doing that in beyond linuxfromscratch.
>From memory, approx 140 modules when I last checked the deep-down
module dependencies - definitely 'Delvers' for those who have read
Discworld.  Oh, if you don't run tests then quite a few less
modules: but my understanding is that automated CPAN installs will
run the tests anyway and therefore install all the modules.

Of course, if people use automated perl installs then for them that
is not a problem.  But then, if I wanted an automated install I'd
use a binary linux distro.

I am only doing the biber build because we (LFS, BLFS) want to build
everything from source (excepting those language compilers which
require a binary version to bootstrap) and before my time we had
started by using a binary build and then installing source over the
top of it - someone eventually noticed we were not rebuilding biber,
nor asy, xindy, and complained.

The big problem in biber is not the changes in it, it is the changes
(extra, or different, dependencies when one of the modules in the
dependency tree gets updated).  Doing something similar for yet
another perl module is not worth the effort (specifically, I
eventually found out how to use biber, like the other extras, and
can make a stab at using it and testing that a new version works,
but the overhead to doing that (and the limited use of any of those
extra TeX packages) means I have no intention of looking at any new
extras which are not simple from-source builds in TL2023.

ĸen
-- 
Greater love hath no woman for the premiership than to lay down the
life of her bosom friend in an attempt to save her own skin.
                                     -- Andrew Rawnsley