CPAN/MakeMaker version 0.10 =========================== The module ExtUtils::MakeMaker is familiar to everybody. It's on the first line of every Makefile.PL of every module distribution on CPAN. The good thing about ExtUtils::MakeMaker is that it is powerful, featureful, flexible, cross-platform and on virtually every installation of Perl 5. The bad thing about this legacy workhorse is that the Perl community is crippled to significantly improve it. Any features added now can only enhance the current release of Perl. Authors would shun new features anyway, because their modules could not be used in earlier versions of Perl that account for the overwhelming majority of installations. Unfortunately, ExtUtils::MakeMaker is also stuck with a suboptimal interface for new Perl authors. Writing a good Makefile.PL requires an unnecessary level of expertise. Although anything is possible, some seemingly simple tasks (like distributing scripts) involve a lot of setup. Complicating the matter is the fact that there is no API for accessing many of the powerful internals of ExtUtils::MakeMaker. CPAN::MakeMaker changes everything. This module is a drop-in replacement for ExtUtils::MakeMaker. CPAN::MakeMaker works exactly like its legacy counterpart, but it makes a lot of simple things easier, and some harder things possible. CPAN::MakeMaker is a self-distributing module. Only the people who want to create a Perl module or script distribution need to install it. The first time you run your Makefile.PL, CPAN::MakeMaker will attach itself to your distribution. The people who end up installing your distribution don't even need to have into on their system at all. It just works. You should be able to switch any of your existing module distributions to CPAN::MakeMaker by simply changing the line: use ExtUtils::MakeMaker; to: use CPAN::MakeMaker; And then run the command 'perl Makefile.PL'. Everything should just work as before, but now you can take advantage of CPAN::MakeMaker's additional features. See the CPAN::MakeMaker documentation for more details. Make the Switch! NEW FEATURES 0.10: - Initial Release INSTALLATION To install this module type the following: perl Makefile.PL make make test make install COPYRIGHT AND LICENCE Copyright (C) 2002 Brian Ingerson This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.