> 
> The opposition to perl is to adding it to the standard NetBSD
> distribution.  Many people believe it is needless additional bloat,
> and/or that perl doesn't fit the model of a "pure" simple Unix tool.
> And, that it's easy enough to get and build if you really want it.

Regardless of the truth of this statement, the fact that Larry has made
an effort to keep developing the system in the face of what be enormous
economic pressure (look what happened to PGP) and provides a way for us
to cleanly, simply, and generally easily put Perl into the system should
be lauded. 

One of the ways we could do that is to make it easy to get Perl.

We currently track the GNU sources in a 'this is the distribution, this
is NetBSD way' directory; the precedent has been set.  

The neatest thing about Perl is not the fact that it was Java before
Java, but that there is an entire network of assets available (CPAN)
which makes nearly any Perl task that much simpler.

> 
> You can use perl to drive all the NetBSD web sites you want -- nobody
> will have problems with that.  In fact, Apache plus perl would be the
> very first, and possibly only, choice most people would have for doing
> Web automation, if they were planning to run it on top of any Unix,
> NetBSD included.
> 

#define DAVE'S_OPINION

With CPAN already out there, our support of PERL should not be to
re-invent the distribution wheel, but to provide a hook into CPAN which
would make getting and installing Perl (and it's attendant components)
that much easier.

If we could figure out a way (as part of sysinst, maybe?) to go out to
the closest CPAN site and grab the most current version and load/build
it from a drool-proof button, I think we'd be a long way towards
'integrating without integrating' if you know what I mean.

-- 
Dave Burgess                   Network Engineer - Nebraska On-Ramp, Inc.
*bsd FAQ Maintainer / SysAdmin for the NetBSD system in my spare bedroom
"Just because something is stupid doesn't mean there isn't someone that 
doesn't want to do it...."