Latest Slash Install Reveals Discrepancies Between Documentation and Practical Advice
Dave Aiello wrote, "For the past couple of days, I have devoted myself to building a new Slashcode installation using Slash version 2.2.5. At times, this has been frustrating because I have found a couple of situations where the available documentation suggests one course of action, while experienced Slash users recommend something completely different. Here are a couple of examples:"
- Installing mySQL: The book Running Weblogs With Slash says: "Though MySQL makes binary distributions for most operating systems, building it from source avoids several hassels." I took this to mean that I should build mySQL from the source code. As I noted in an article I later submitted to Ask Slashcode, the mySQL documentation suggested that I use the binaries that they provide on their web site instead of building from the sources.
Feedback on this question clearly indicated that I could use the mySQL-compiled binaries quite safely.
- Perl Module Installation: The Slash INSTALL file suggests using the CPAN shell to install Bundle::Slash. What the documentation doesn't say is that you have to choose specific options in order to get Bundle::DBD::Msql and Template-Toolkit to build successfully.
The Template-Toolkit build problem is documented on Slashcode. The simplest way around it is to choose not to perform the DBI tests when doing the build tests for this module.
I resolved the Bundle::DBD::Msql problem by choosing to only install the mySQL DBD and not include the legacy code to make older Perl programs work. I have not found another posting on the Internet that specifically addresses this problem.
Dave Aiello continued, "This experience indicates that people doing new Slash installations still have to be resourceful and look for some of their answers on the Internet, not just in the book or the distribution documentation."