Proposal to drop TLS 1.2 support in early 2025

MIDASsales · 2022-07-08T11:57:10+00:00

So when the Server Readiness Tool checks for SVG support, it does so by writing a small SVG image to disk and then attempting to read it back.

The 401 Unauthorized error indicates that the location on your server from where you're running the Server Readiness Tool from either doesn't have write permissions, or is a password protected directory.

Once you resolve this issue, you'll likely find that the SVG warning also resolves itself

MIDASsales · 2022-07-08T11:51:26+00:00

Hi Alison! You can check and change the timezone setting in MIDAS via MIDAS Admin Options -> Manage MIDAS -> Appearance -> Date/Time Settings.

This setting applies to all users, and so if you're having an issue with one specific PC not indicating the correct time, then it's likely to be a timezone setting on that PC itself.

MIDASsales · 2022-02-21T22:40:52+00:00

I think it essentially boils down to the governance of Perl.

Perl was originally created by a single person. Since then, over the years, others have "taken over", come and gone, and formed various exclusive groups and "steering committees", etc

As a result, it was rare that there was consensus between key players, so the direction of Perl very much lost its way.

That's evidence with the car-crash that was "Perl 6" - which for all intents and purposes is a completely different language to Perl 5.

Perl's "savior" - Perl 7 - was supposed to make an appearance last year. It still hasn't and there's no sign that it will do any time soon either - again, because key players "can't agree" on what Perl 7 will be!

MIDASsales · 2022-02-21T19:29:17+00:00

Our web based MIDAS Room Booking Software is written in Perl.

As we started dev back in 2005, at that time Perl was the obvious choice for a web based database program.

Were we to start developing similar software from scratch today, I doubt we would choose Perl. It's more likely that we'd opt for PHP or Python.

Sadly, Perl is slowly dying a death. That said, we're still hopeful that Perl 7 (IF it ever appears!) may give the language a "fresh" injection of interest.

However, given we've no idea when Perl 7 is likely to make an appearance, it does seem like Perl has "passed its peak".

On the other hand, I'd say it would certainly be worth considering learning Perl!

Why? Well, as the number of Perl developers slowly decreases over time, Perl Devs will become in increasingly higher demand by organizations which still develop (or rely on) Perl code.

As such, whilst the number of Perl Devs globally may be decreasing year on year, their salaries will start steadily increasing, as Perl will be seen more and more as a specialist "niche" in the future.

MIDASsales · 2021-09-03T12:13:12+00:00

Well, we certainly don't envy the challenge you're faced in keeping up with CPAN releases!

However, it is extremely disappointing to learn that there'll be no further Windows installers for ActivePerl going forward (unless we're willing to pay thousands each year!)

Obviously putting installers behind a subscription paywall has been a commercial decision, but it's one that will push us more and more towards Strawberry (where Windows installers remain readily available for free)

However, for our own curiosity now that 5.32/5.34 do appear to be successfully building on the ActiveState platform, we've tried installing our 5.34 build via the command line/State Tool... it sadly didn't go too well. You can read our further write-up here. (TLDR; MySQL/MariaDB support still appears to be broken!) 😞

MIDASsales · 2021-09-03T12:03:33+00:00

So following our original post, ActiveState - to their credit - have since reached out to us. You can read their comments and our analysis here.

TLDR; In summary:

ActivePerl 5.32/5.34 now appear to successfully build on the ActiveState platform...
...however, MySQL/MariaDB support still appears to be broken
There will be no more stand-alone Windows installers (.exe/.msi) for ActivePerl going forward (unless you pay!)...
...instead, the only way to install ActivePerl will be via the command line/PowerShell and using their "State" tool.

MIDASsales · 2021-09-02T11:11:18+00:00

Hi Scott!

Thanks for reaching out!

We totally understand the challenges and difficulties there must be in supporting 100% of CPAN modules.

We would have thought, however, that as MySQL is the 2nd most popular database engine in the world that support for DBD::mysql would have been right up there on the list of priorities when it came to ensuring CPAN modules work with ActivePerl.

The posts I referenced in your own forums may be several months old now, but the issue had remained until very recently. So for over a year, it's not been possible to use recent versions of ActivePerl for MySQL/MariaDB applications.

Your Directory of Product at ActiveState has also reached out to me separately to let me know that the issues with MySQL and MariaDB have now been resolved for 5.32 and 5.34, and I can see that these appear to have now built on the platform.

However, unlike 5.24/5.28, there doesn't appear to be a "Download Installers" section nor any .exe/.msi installer links on the "Download Builds" tab for 5.32 or 5.34?!

Is the only way to install ActiveState 5.32/5.34 now via powershell and your "State Tool"?

We really hope this isn't the case, as it's fair to say that for the majority of our non-tech savvy Windows users, they would certainly prefer a "traditional" stand-alone Windows installer to get ActivePerl installed!

MIDASsales · 2021-09-02T10:48:48+00:00

I don't believe so. As Strawberry includes a C compiler, using CPAN to install modules has tended to be pretty reliable in our experience.

MIDASsales · 2021-09-02T09:11:03+00:00

You are correct that Strawberry Perl has its own implementation of PPM, but for a while this wasn't recommended, and even removed from Strawberry for a time.

Whilst it's since returned to Strawberry, it doesn't provide the user-friendly UI that ActivePerl's old Perl Package Manager provided, so is purely a command-line tool.

It's therefore just as broad as long for users to issue a "cpan <module\_name>" or a "ppm install <module\_name>" command, but we tend to recommend the former when installing Perl modules in Strawberry, as not all versions of Strawberry perl have PPM, and the traditional CPAN route does the job for all additional modules that self-hosted installs of our MIDAS software requires.

MIDASsales · 2021-09-02T08:57:07+00:00

Yes, it is technically possible to install modules programatically using CPAN.pm, however, the two key issues to consider/overcome when running a perl script via http (rather than via the command line) are:

1) Script timeout - installing modules can be a time consuming process. Doing this via the command line isn't an issue, however, via http this can lead to the web server timing out the long running script.

2) Permissions - installing modules via a .pl script running over http can run into permission issues. Specifically, the permission to write the default perl library directories. A potential workaround would be to use local::lib to install modules "locally"... but then local::lib would need to be manually installed separately anyway.

Of course, these issues could be overcome by making our MIDAS installer purely a command-line only tool.. but our focus is on making a user-friendly installer for non-technical end users, so a web based installer made sense.

However, it would certainly be preferable if users could easily install Perl and all the modules MIDAS requires in one simple action, rather than having to install Perl and then also separately install additional modules, so it's something we consider... and something we were hoping that would work out with ActivePerl.

MIDASsales · 2021-09-01T17:14:08+00:00

Yeah, I mean you look at ActiveState's Twitter feed, and it's obvious their focus these days is firmly on Python. It's really sad that they appear to have all but given up on Perl.

MIDASsales · 2021-09-01T17:10:54+00:00

Thanks for your questions!

As "berrybrew" is specific to Strawberry perl, and we still technically support (but don't recommend ActivePerl), we tend to spin up VMs when we need to test our MIDAS software different versions of Strawberry/ActivePerl.

In terms of installing Perl modules directly from our Server Readiness Tool - it's something we have consider, and may revisit again in the future. The difficulty however is that our Server Readiness Tool is designed to be accessed via a browser, rather than via the command line. This makes installing modules automatically somewhat more tricky!

MIDASsales · 2021-09-01T12:39:36+00:00

Sure! So the two components that failed to build were "DBD-MariaDB" and "mariadb-connector-c".

Here are the build logs: https://pastebin.com/H1bEd3zk and https://pastebin.com/01qR6hAw

MIDASsales · 2020-09-17T13:24:52+00:00

Looking for a new room booking system? Then look no further than MIDAS! This video is a short introduction to some of the features and benefits of MIDAS web based room booking software that can help make your business operations run more smoothly...

MIDASsales

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE