remove dead backwards compatibility code by mauke · Pull Request #83 · pmqs/IO-Compress

mauke · 2026-08-12T05:54:06Z

Most of this patch is dead code removal. If a file uses use warnings, which is a compile-time error on perls before v5.6.0, any subsequent runtime tests such as if ($] < 5.006) or require 5.006 are redundant: A perl that would fail these checks wouldn't have made it this far into the file anyway.

Plus a few bug fixes:

use numeric comparison operators for comparing version numbers, not string operators (because 10.0 lt 5.99)
use double quotes to interpolate $] in skip message; don't print it literally
$] < 5.6 should have been $] < 5.006

pmqs · 2026-08-13T14:01:15Z

    unless $ENV{PERL_CORE};

+(my $mm_version = ExtUtils::MakeMaker->VERSION) =~ tr/_//d;
+


This needs a short comment explaining what it is doing.

pmqs · 2026-08-13T14:20:17Z


 package IO::Uncompress::Gunzip ;
-
-require 5.006 ;


probably needs to be requite 5.008 here and in all other files.

If you want to raise the minimum supported perl version to 5.8.0, that's fine with me, but I don't think it should be part of this pull request.

`ExtUtils::MakeMaker->VERSION() gt '6.30'` is a string comparison. It will return wrong results if ExtUtils::MakeMaker reaches version 10. Use a numeric comparison instead (but explicitly strip out "_" because old ExtUtils::MakeMaker versions include a literal "_" in their version "numbers").

We don't need any fancy tests involving $^O, $], or eval() because both branches of the conditional return 1. So just set $needBinmode to 1.

`$] < 5.6` has always been true because a `$]` number of 5.6 represents perl v5.600.0, which is not expected to be released within the next hundred years. These tests probably intended to check for `$] < 5.006`, but that's pointless because they also `use warnings`, which is a compile-time error on perls before v5.6.0.

It makes more sense to print the perl version instead of a literal `$]`.

The file starts with `require 5.006`, so `$]` cannot be less than 5.006 at this point.

All of these files `use warnings`, which is a compile-time error on perls before v5.6.0. Subsequent runtime tests such as `if ($] < 5.006)` or `require 5.006` are thus redundant.