#50512: perl5: obsolete subports perl5.16 perl5.18 perl5.20 --------------------------+--------------------- Reporter: devans@… | Owner: mojca@… Type: enhancement | Status: new Priority: Normal | Milestone: Component: ports | Version: Resolution: | Keywords: Port: perl5 | --------------------------+--------------------- Comment (by devans@…): Sounds reasonable. However, it may be simplistic to think that one blanket policy would fit all ports. In the perl case, I think these are the issues that might be considered: * is it useful to support outdated versions of perl that are no longer supported upstream by updates or security fixes? * does it make sense to commit scarce maintainer resources to maintaining such outdated software? * does anyone really care? (see comments from lduke, pixilla above) * are these outdated versions useful when we don't support up-to-date modules for them (their functionality is currently limited to those modules that were shipped as core modules without further update)? * if there is a point in time where these ports should be removed, when is that? What's the criteria? * have any of the current perl ports met this criteria (and should be immediately removed)? * at what point in the future might additional ports meet this criteria? (e.g. when new versions are released upstream, etc) * once a policy is established, how can we document this policy and make that documentation readily available to the maintainer community? <soapbox>[[BR]] This last question is one that I consider to an important issue with respect to any MacPorts policy. IMO, there would be much less indecision about what to do in any given case if there was a well documented set of written policies to which a maintainer could refer. Currently, any such policy is more of an oral tradition and varies according to who is telling the story. Many organizations maintain something like a "policy & procedures" manual. Why not MacPorts?[[BR]] <\soapbox> I'll be interested to hear what the meeting attendees thing about these topics. Thanks for organizing the meeting. -- Ticket URL: <https://trac.macports.org/ticket/50512#comment:13> MacPorts <https://www.macports.org/> Ports system for OS X