Re: libpspp + Perl module somewhere down the road?

[Ben Pfaff]

John Darrington <address@hidden> writes:

> Actually, it's a Perl module that I've done.   I did it by special
> request of a third party.   I think it's mostly complete. Currently
> it's sitting in a directory on my PC somewhere just waiting for me to
> tidy it up a bit.

Want to post it as a patch when you get a chance?  It sounds like
we have some amount of user demand for it.

> Integrating it into PSPP will require some (not too hard) changes to
> the src/data tree.  One of the problems is that src/data depends on
> libgsl --- but for a trivial reason --- it uses gsl_is_finite.  I
> think we did this because the C99 isfinite function wasn't available
> on BSD or something.  Unfortunately it's not yet part of gnulib
> either.

I'll make that the next gnulib module that I write, then.  I
committed to gnulib a module for the "round" function just a few
days ago.  (Haven't yet had time to submit a PSPP patch to start
using it.)

> If this problem was addressed, and a few other small ones, then I
> think there'd be no major issues integrating my PSPP.pl module into
> the core pspp source, if we want to do that.

My one request, at this point, would be that there be at least
one regression test on "make check" that tries out the Perl
module, so that it doesn't get broken by accident.  (Running the
test would be conditional on the Perl module being configured, I
suppose, but I'd be happy to always configure in the Perl module
for my own testing.)
-- 
"[Modern] war is waged by each ruling group against its own subjects,
 and the object of the war is not to make or prevent conquests of territory,
 but to keep the structure of society intact."
--George Orwell, _1984_