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FreeBSD: Perl to be removed
zmcgrew writes "From Daemon News:
"The decision was made to remove Perl from the FreeBSD -current base system [earlier story ]. Perl will be supported as a port that the user can install after the base installation, however it will no longer be required. Mark Murray put out a call to the -current mailing list asking for volunteers to port all Perl scripts in the base system to another language, such as sh or C. All critical programs are already being ported, with only a few minor ones left to be claimed." Wow..."
"The decision was made to remove Perl from the FreeBSD -current base system [earlier story ]. Perl will be supported as a port that the user can install after the base installation, however it will no longer be required. Mark Murray put out a call to the -current mailing list asking for volunteers to port all Perl scripts in the base system to another language, such as sh or C. All critical programs are already being ported, with only a few minor ones left to be claimed." Wow..."
It appears that having Perl in the base distro has the following problems:
1. It increases the distro image size.
2. It forces everyone to use the same version of Perl.
3. If someone tries to install over that version or just even patch it, it can break stuff in BSD which needed the old version.
4. Installing multiple copies imposes weird symlink tricks or else breaks other stuff.