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Re: The future of POSIX in core

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From:
Mark Blackman
Date:
September 2, 2011 01:57
Subject:
Re: The future of POSIX in core
Message ID:
724AA0DE-88CA-4B3B-851D-7B051FE328BF@exonetric.com

On 1 Sep 2011, at 21:08, Nicholas Clark wrote:

> On Wed, Aug 31, 2011 at 10:38:19PM +0200, Mark Overmeer wrote:
> 
>> He offers to add any library test to the configuration phase of Perl
>> itself... but it might be better to move all checks which are only
>> needed for POSIX.pm into the dual-lifed POSIX itself: that would be
>> more flexible when we extend the support with a few hundred more
>> functions.
> 
> Do we actually want a few hundred more POSIX functions *in core*?

Perhaps not, but the POSIX API strikes me a special case worthy of
consideration separately from the goal of minimal core. The POSIX
API has been around for a very long time and will continue to be
so. It's not updated very frequently and it represents the main
OS interface across a vast range of platforms.  

Ultimately, it is an instance of being forced to make a concrete
philosophical decision about what Perl should be, of course. I'd say
an updated POSIX in core is more in line with the original intentions
of Perl development, but is probably not in line with the recent 
Perl architectural goals.

- Mark


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