Changing the default Perl mode for emacs (Please help)

[draxil]

Hi,
There's a bug in the works to get the default perl mode in emacs
switched to "cperl-mode". RMS has responded to the bug:

The reason I did not make cperl mode the default, years ago, was
that some users preferred the older perl mode. They thought cperl
had some drawbacks. And the author of cperl mode was unwilling to
fix them.

I don't recall what those drawbacks were -- I never used Perl -- and
I don't know if this is still true.

So I'm posting in Perl/emacs spaces to see if I can gather opinion
from the community to support (or oppose the change). In particular if
anyone can remember what the original concerns were which kept
perl-mode as the default, or what flaws may still remain in
cperl-mode.

Please either contact me or post to the bug:

http://old.nabble.com/forum/ViewPost.jtp?post=33244646&framed=y

Thanks,
Joe.

 

[Marc Girod]

So I'm posting in Perl/emacs spaces to see if I can gather opinion
from the community to support (or oppose the change). In particular if
anyone can remember what the original concerns were which kept
perl-mode as the default, or what flaws may still remain in
cperl-mode.

You'll get an answer from the author...
But the issue I believe is that cperl is made for an old version of
the emacs macro.
Recent byte compilers will barf at every second line.

The conversion is rather trivial (I offered one--I believe the cygwin
porter maintains one).
But the author--with all my admiration and love--is not willing to
switch from emacs 18.xx
That's what I remember.
I do use cperl myself. On cygwin for the time being.

Marc