[Bioperl-l] removing BioPerl 1.x from CPAN — request for comment

[Dave Messina]

Hi everybody,

As some of you have no doubt noticed, we have a persistent problem with users accidentally using BioPerl versions 1.4 and earlier. Although they've been placed on BackPAN, CPAN's archive for deprecated software, for some reason they still show up in CPAN search results.

It's frustrating for users to be directed to the wrong version of the software, adding another gotcha to an already too-complicated installation process. And to this day it generates support emails on this list.

As far as I know, the Ensembl Perl API still designates version 1.2.3 of BioPerl for use with it:

	http://www.ensembl.org/info/docs/api/api_installation.html

(although in Chris Fields' testing, the Ensembl API worked just fine with the current BioPerl version, 1.6.x.)


I intend to ask the CPAN admins to remove BioPerl 1.4 and earlier entirely. But before I do, I wanted to raise the issue here in case anyone objects. In particular, it'd be great if someone from Ensembl could weigh in on this. I should also point out that we have these earlier releases archived on github already, so they will still be available.


Thanks,
Dave