On Jun 27, 2008, at 2:50 PM, Randal L. Schwartz wrote:

> I'm looking for that kind of ease.  Where I can say:
>
>  "Here is a new parser generator I just created.  it requires an XML
>  package.  I think it runs on 3.9 but I've only tested it on 3.10."
>
> and then publish it somewhere.
>
> And then you, coming along, can say:
>
>  "I need a parser generator.  Oh, here's one Randal wrote.  I'll
>  install it... oh it looks like it needs an XML parser, so that's
>  getting installed too."

this aspect of cpan ( and ruby's gem system and some other systems. )
is just so nice. i don't have to care that package A depends on 15 other
packages, it tells me that when i want to install and gives me the  
choice
install them or not. i hit yes to a few dependencies and bam! i have  
something
that works 99% of the time.

do the same thing by hand, ugh... so much time.
The simplicity of this basic operation is the killer feature. You miss
it so much when you go to systems that don't handle all of it for you.

If you haven't used something like it, you don't know what you are  
missing.
I speak as a convert who for years after CPAN was introduced continued
to build by hand because I was obstinate. I've seen the light,
all hail cpan, ruby gems, apt-get and all their brethren that 99%
of the time, work and save me tons of time.