[illumos-Developer] (no subject)

[Richard Lowe]

James C. McPherson wrote:
>
> The reason that perl is inside ON and Illumos is because it's
> needed in order to build certain low-level userland utilities
> that are part of that consolidation. prtdiag is one such example.

The reason perl was in ON is that SFW didn't exist when the integration
was done.  Perl 5.10 is no longer in ON (it's in SFW), and when 5.8.4 is
EOF, perl in general will not be.

A more general response:

I'd resist any language implementations being added to ON, even _if_ ON
depend upon them: ON needs to shrink, not grow, and integrating large,
pre-existing, pieces of software with their own goals well is very
difficult. 

SFW, JDS, pkgsrc, all make integrating 3rd party software easier and
more pleasant for everyone, including (and most of all) the person doing
the integration.

-- Rich