Editing The Perl Lazarus Workshop (section)

== Alien::wxWidgets: locating and describing the native library ==

Between wxWidgets and the Perl binding sits <code>Alien::wxWidgets</code>.

The name “Alien” can sound more mysterious than the function it performs. In the Perl ecosystem, an Alien distribution generally helps locate, build, or describe a non-Perl library needed by Perl modules.

In this workshop, <code>Alien::wxWidgets</code> provides the bridge between the native wxWidgets installation and the build of wxPerl. It records the information needed to compile and link the Perl binding against a suitable wxWidgets library.

This layer is one reason version combinations matter.

The relevant versions of:

* Strawberry Perl;
* its compiler and runtime;
* wxWidgets;
* <code>Alien::wxWidgets</code>;
* and <code>Wx</code>

must agree sufficiently for the build to complete and the resulting programs to run.

The installation script being developed for the Perl Lazarus Project exists to make this sequence repeatable. It does not abolish the need to understand the sequence.

A good installation script should reveal:

# which version is being installed;
# where it was obtained;
# which command is being run;
# where its output is logged;
# whether the stage succeeded;
# and how the result can be verified.

Automation is valuable when it preserves successful labor and allows another person to reproduce it. It becomes dangerous when it conceals the state of the workshop from the craftsman who must later repair it.