[Bioperl-l] External dependencies [was Bio::DB::WebDBSeqI]

[Ewan Birney]

On Tue, 12 Dec 2000, Todd Richmond wrote:

> On 12/12/00 12:01 PM, "Hilmar Lapp" <hlapp@gmx.net> wrote:
> 
> > A general question to people on the list: what is your general feeling
> > about the number of external dependencies? Do you feel fine with a
> > growing number, or does it scare you, do you think it might
> > significantly heighten the barrier to using the package, or is it just
> > normal for you that installing one package means installing another ten.
> 
> Speaking as someone who uses the bioperl package on a Mac - every external
> dependency you add is one more thing that's likely to break for me. Anything
> that has to be compiled is especially bad unless binaries are made
> available, since most Mac users don't have a compiler handy (and even if
> they do it's not as simple as "make"). Hopefully most of these concerns will
> go away with OSX, but they are definitely a concern right now.

Most (?all) our dependencies are pure perl modules, so they should work
for Macs...


I personally believe that it is ok to have dependencies on thing like LWP,
File::Temp etc but not ok to have dependencies on
New::SuperClever::MySQL::AutoBinder or something else which is likely to
be more buggy than bioperl ;)


I reckon we have the balance good at the moment



> 
> -- 
> Dr Todd Richmond                 http://cellwall.stanford.edu/todd
> Carnegie Institution             email: todd@andrew2.stanford.edu
> Department of Plant Biology      fax: 1-650-325-6857
> 260 Panama Street                phone: 1-650-325-1521 x431
> Stanford, CA 94305
> 
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