[cgiapp] size of scripts and dependencies

[P Kishor]

On Sat, Sep 19, 2009 at 7:35 PM, Michael Peters <mpeters at plusthree.com> wrote:
> On 09/19/2009 07:10 PM, Ron Savage wrote:
>
>> That's a great argument for shipping the POD in a separate file from the
>> *.pm.
>
> For me the benefit of having the documentation near the code it documents
> (which means it has a higher chance of staying up-to-date) far outweighs the
> micro (or pico) seconds I'll save by the interpreter skipping my comments
> when it's compiling. I'm still waiting for someone in this thread that is
> concerned with these issues to actually do a benchmark.
>
> Also, if you run a persistant environment (and I still don't understand why
> everyone doesn't do that) it's all moot anyway.

Because, Michael, it is difficult. It is not simply out of the box and
click and run. To run a persistent environment, I have to install and
configure Apache and mod_perl or FastCGI. I develop on my laptop,
then, when everything is working, I set up the application on a test
server, then when everything is checked by the rest of the team and
tested, we move it to a production server. That means, I have to set
up not one but three identical environments. I have wasted countless
hours trying to make mod_perl compile on a server I have. It just is
too difficult.

Of course, this brings me back to the original intent behind this
thread... make the persistent environment, the database, the
templating engine, etc. a single click install, preferably a single
file instead of 40 different files, and I probably wouldn't even care
that it was 40K lines. I wouldn't even know... it is a matter of
perception, I guess.

Call my argument silly and stupid, but all these bits and bobs and
moving parts are scary, and folks looking over my shoulder say... do
we really need all this just to make a web page? Of course we do, but
do we have to show them (and ourselves) that?

By the way, I agree with you wholeheartedly that the documentation
should be *with* the code. But, perhaps, like I mentioned in an
earlier email, we could have a "production" version of the code that
takes out all the comments, smushes all the code in a single file and
minifies it (aka "packs" it) a la Javascript minification... at least
for the tried and tested modules. Actually, I see a few drawbacks in
my own suggestion, but I put it out as a point of discussion.

>
> --
> Michael Peters
> Plus Three, LP
>




-- 
Puneet Kishor http://www.punkish.org
Carbon Model http://carbonmodel.org
Charter Member, Open Source Geospatial Foundation http://www.osgeo.org
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Nelson Institute, UW-Madison http://www.nelson.wisc.edu
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