Upgrading Perl... Somebody just shoot me and put me out of my misery!

[Matthias Andree]

Am 25.11.2013 07:53, schrieb olli hauer:
> On 2013-11-25 07:40, Matthias Andree wrote:
>> Am 23.11.2013 12:20, schrieb Mark Martinec:
>>> On Friday 22 November 2013 21:40:07 Ronald F. Guilmette wrote:
>>>> Now, one last little thing...
>>>>
>>>> The note in the UPDATING file dated 20131120 gives essentially the same
>>>> instructions as the one dated 20131023, *however* it also contains this:
>>>>
>>>>    1) Change the option in lang/perl5.16:
>>>>         make -C /usr/ports/lang/perl5.16 config
>>>>
>>>> HUH??  I don't understand this at all.  What exactly is "the option" that
>>>> we are changing here?  And what does it matter to anything?
>>>>
>>>> It would be Nice if this were entierly less opaque.
>>>
>>> $ man ports
>>> [...]
>>>      config     Configure OPTIONS for this port using dialog4ports(1).
>>>
>>>> And what does it matter to anything?
>>>
>>> Gives you a choice to re-think your existing/chosen port options.
>>> For example, a new default is now THREADS, but you may not like
>>> it, as it somewhat increases the memory usage and requires
>>> to rebuild all perl modules.
>>
>> Which shows an interesting facet of this whole tedious process:
>>
>> We're doing a lousy job of explaining the options to unsavvy users, and
>> we're also doing a lousy job of tracking options.  Perhaps we should
>> just slash down the options and go more for "build the default" - it
>> also reduces testing complexity and would give for a more uniform ports
>> experience for everyone (packages use default options anyways).

> 
> ${opt}_DESC is limited, but help/explanation can be given in pkg-help.

Granted, but last time I checked I did not have a "Help" button on
dialog4ports.  Either none of the ports I've seen offering options offer
pkg-help, or dialog4ports needs to be told to feed pkg-help through $PAGER.