Interview to Perl/Linux maintainer (Don Mahurin)
Perl is a world per se, and fits perfectly in the Open Source and Linux world, so perfectly that a complete Linux distrbution made with Perl is on the road : Perl/Linux was born (http://perllinux.sourceforge.net/).
Please Don, introduce yourself to the CaFe.pm group
My Name is Don Mahurin. I've been a Software Engineer for 10 or so years, and have used Linux and Perl for about the same amount of time.
I currently live in California in the U.S.A, where I work for a Voice-over-IP company here in San Jose.
Which one was your motivation to build Perl/Linux ??
The obvious first reason was that I knew it could be done, and I could do it.
I was also a bit annoyed by the Linux is really GNU/Linux proclamations, and wished that people would realize that the the kernel IS the OS (filesystem, memory and disk management), and the rest are just programs running on the OS. Perl/Linux was meant to show that somewhat.
Also, I thought at the time that it may be a good small rescue disk OS, though I have never used it that way.
Did you get some help from other Open Source projects ?? (code, advice, manpower, etc.)
Much of the application code came from PPT (Perl Power Tools).
Mount, edit, vi came from unSlider. I enhanced some features for
Perl/Linux.
More information came from Jay Komineks page who had the same idea.
I wrote other applications, including a perl web server and the bootup
stuff (init, getty, login).
What skills (Perl related or not) did you gain while you build Perl/Linux ??
I gained some knowledge of how to better build a Linux system from scratch. I learned that the low level syscall stuff in perl can be a pain sometimes, as some of the system headers are missing and need to be generated.
Could you give an example of the missed ones and how you generated them ??
Several headers seemed to be missing. They are generated with a command such as h2ph bits/syscall.h features.h. see lib/perl-sys-headers.
What advice will you give to the wanna be designers and hobbists facing a new project ??
Release as often as possible. Get others to join the project ( I am still trying to do this).
In which parts of the code you will advice to the novice Perl coder to look at, in order to have a very pleasant learning experience ?
I think most of the application code is readable. Some of the boot program code contains magic that probably needs some work.
How can anyone colaborate with Perl/Linux ??
Build it. Try it out. Add some missing feature, then let me know. I would be glad to add developers that have specific ideas of what Perl/Linux should be.
What features you think are missed, and which ones will you add soon ??
Perl Native SSL module needs to be written.
Some sort of remote shell server(sshd, some SSL based remote shell, or
perhaps even a simple HTTP based unsecure shell).
A native Rsync module exists, so a rsync client can be added easily. I
just haven't looked at the project in a number of months.
Which one you think that should be the next major step in Perl/Linux ?
The next step for Perl/Linux is tailoring it for real-world uses possibly including rescue disks or small footprint devices. Some possible features that would be good additions for such systems would be secure remote(ssh or other) login access, and any other essential system utilities.
Of course more feedback and patches coming from users and developers would help most any project.
Any favorite CPAN module ?
no favorite.
Do you have any experience (funny or not so) that you had while making Perl/Linux and that want to share with us ??
Some of things that people wrote in email or online about Perl/Linux were funny. Some said it was cool. Others said that they were thinking of doing the same thing. And there was one person new to Linux who was trying to install perllinuxas it was thought to be required by PHP.
A favorite Perl programmer, advocate or any Perl related person ??
Larry Wall...
Are there any Perl Group near yur location ?? Do you participate in it??
There probably are such groups in the area, but I have not participated in any.
