“MongoDB is cool”, I was told. Ok, let’s try it out.

I downloaded MongoDB, for x86_64, from their site. Installation and setup was a breeze. After the compressed tar-ball was extracted, change into the ./bin directory of the archive, and execute, “./mongod”. Wait? That’s it? – Yep. I ran through their tutorial and got the general, “feel”, for the basics. Ok, time to try the Perl interface and get to coding!

Ok, they recommend,

$ cpan MongoDB

I generally don’t like the cpan module doing all the work of downloading all the needed modules for me.  I want to know what it is involved, just in case something fails mid-install, or I run into a problem later.   It also requires a network connection and responsive CPAN mirrors. (how would I install this on a private network?)   Not to mention, it also relies on you trusting it to not to interfere with other modules already installed.

For manual install they said I needed,

Any::Moose, Class::Method::Modifiers, Data::Types, DateTime, File::Slurp, Test::Exception, Try::Tiny, boolean, and Module::Install. (Additionally, Tie::IxHash is required for testing.)

On my generic CentOS install, I didn’t expect this to be too time consuming.    Just download the modules from search.cpan.org, fulfill a couple of dependency requirements, and install.

What I experienced from then on could only be described as, “Perl Dependency Hell”.   After the 37th dependency was installed, and I had only made it through to, “DateTime”, I had to stop.

I can imagine coders are putting together Perl modules to fit certain needs in the community.   Take a command-line argument parser, for example.   Not everyone needs one but, when one is needed, they are usually lightweight (to performance and load times) and very useful.   But when does module granularity exceed usefulness?   Most of the modules I downloaded were written by the same author and most had only one small “.pm”, perl module included.   Could these not be combined into CPAN… packages?  or subsets?

Beyond commercial software licensing, I believe dependencies are the bain of this Perl geek’s (or in many cases UNIX lover’s), existence.  After so many years of existence, I would have thought things like this would have been addressed.

Well, I guess I have to depend on the cpan module to install my libraries.. this time!

Here are my notes from the pain of a couple of hours of crap…

yum install perl-ExtUtils-MakeMaker
yum install make
yum install gcc

Installed Test-Simple-0.98 (req by Mouse)
Installed Sub-Uplevel-0.22 (req by Mouse)
Installed Mouse-0.97 (req by Any-Moose)
Installed Any-Moose-0.18

Installed Try-Tiny-0.11 (req by Test-Fatal)
Installed Test-Fatal-0.008 (req by Class-Method-Modifiers)
Installed Class-Method-Modifiers-1.08

Installed CPAN-Meta-YAML-0.004 (req by CPAN-Meta)
Installed JSON-PP (req by CPAN-Meta)
Installed Parse-CPAN-Meta-1.4401 (req by CPAN-Meta)
Installed Version-Requirements-0.101020 (req by CPAN-Meta)
Installed version-0.95 (req by CPAN-Meta)
Installed CPAN-Meta-2.112621 (req by Module-Build)

Installed Locale-Maketext-Simple-0.21 (req by IPC::Cmd)
Installed Module-CoreList-2.58 (req by Module-Load-Conditional)
Installed Module-Load-0.22 (req by Module-Load-Conditional)
Installed Params-Check-0.32 (req by Module-Load-Conditional)
Installed Module-Load-Conditional-0.46 (req by IPC-Cmd)
Installed Params-Check-0.32 (req by IPC-Cmd)
Installed IPC-Cmd-0.72 (req by ExtUtils::CBuilder)
Installed ExtUtils-CBuilder-0.280202 (req by Module-Build)

Installed Compress-Raw-Bzip2-2.045 (req by IO-Compress)
Installed Compress-Raw-Zlib (req by IO-Compress)
Installed IO-Compress-2.045 (req by Archive-Tar)

Installed Algorithm-Diff-1.15 (req by Text-Diff… not 1.15)
(CPAN defaulted to 1.15, d/l’ed 1.19 as I found out, IT was req by Text::Diff)
Installed Algorithm-Diff-1.1902 (req by Text-Diff)
Installed Text-Diff-1.41 (req by Archive-Tar)

Installed IO-Zlib-1.10 (req by Archive-Tar)
Installed Package-Constants-0.02 (req by Archive-Tar)
Installed Archive-Tar-1.82 (req by … umm.. Module-Build)

Installed Perl-OSType-1.002 (req by Module-Build)
Installed Module-Metadata-1.000007 (req by Module-Build)
Installed Module-Build-0.3800 (req by Data-Types)
Installed Data-Types-0.09

(About this time I was starting to yell obscenities at the screen…)

Installed List-MoreUtils-0.33 (req by DateTime-Locale)
Installed Params-Validate-1.00 (req by DateTime-Locale)
Installed DateTime-Locale-0.45 (req by DateTime)

DateTime-0.7 needs DateTime-TimeZone, which needs Class-Load, which needs
Data::OptList, Module::Runtime, and Package::Stash…. and what do those
need???

Edit: It’s installed via,

[root@testbox3 ~]# cpan MongoDB

.. but, will it blend?  More to come.

 
Edit: What I go through to be careful… still plugging away at coding and MongoDB… If ADD doesn’t catch up to be first… oh, look! a piece of candy!

I have been reluctant to go to any concerts or venues for the last few years.   The crowds, the awkwardness, and a endless fear that a show will somehow taint my impression of the music (strange, eh?), have all kept me away.      Well, there is one musician that I know I could not miss, if he were to come into driving distance from Cincinnati.     That artist is Antoine Dufour.

Like many people, I have periods of ups and downs in life – some climbs and dips being more extreme than other ones.    Luckily, there have been only two extreme drops into depression in my adult life.   It was during the second of which I found Antoine Dufour’s music.     Despite all the music I listened to, his was the only set I could truly attach myself to.   It was if it set a life rhythm that helped me start to climb out of depression.

Antoine Dufour was the opening artist in the, “Guitar Masters Tour”, which thankfully came into town to the Southgate House in Newport, KY last Friday.    There was no stopping me, I had to go.   And, although I am a 37 year guy, I can honestly attest that I was fighting back the urge to tear up while I listened from the back of the grand ballroom.      If for no other reason than the firm belief that this music had saved my life.

It’s strange to think how much pull music has on people’s life.    For some, it is their life.   They may wake, live, and sleep embracing music.   For some others, it may be merely something that is tolerated as they deal with more, “important”, things in life.   For me, I couldn’t live without it.

Thank you, Antoine, for sharing your music with the world.

I will always find time to support musicians.   For without them, I truly believe we would all have to succumb to a much uglier, meaningless, and heartless world.

VH1 – Save the Music Foundation

(I don’t work for them, but I believe the future of music deserves all we can give.)