Locale::CLDR::Locales::* modules load bignum, breaking every project which sets $Math::BigFloat::downgrade or $Math::BigInt::upgrade

[ehuelsmann]

As discussed in pjacklam/p5-Math-BigInt#11 and also reported in #36, with recent improvements in down- and upgrading in Math::BigInt/Math::BigFloat (released as part of Perl 5.36+), there are now more operations which correctly return the upgraded/downgraded result. However, this also makes it more visible that this project is overriding the up- and downgrade selections of the projects it's embedded in.

What's more: it overrides the selection in the project it's part of, not right from the start, but only once the first Locale::CLDR::Locales::* module is loaded (which happens dynamically). This behaviour makes the type failures, e.g. in LedgerSMB seem random.

Why does this module use bignum itself? why doesn't it advise users to do that or failing that, take other measures?

[pjacklam]

If the Locale::CLDR::Locales::* modules need support for big numbers, it is better to use either bigint or bigfloat, depending on which type of numbers that are involved. These two pragmas do not upgrade or downgrade, which also makes them faster than bignum since the upgrading and downgrading introduces some overhead.

[ThePilgrim]

I think bigfloat will work I'm going to make a trial version for 0.34.2 and see what happens
This will be on it's own branch called v0.34

[ehuelsmann]

Thanks! That would be hugely appreciated. Since I have some code which is reliably failing, I'll reverse the mitigating measures and see if the code remains stable with the new release and without the measures.

[ThePilgrim]

You may have noticed a lack of development over the last year, this is a massive project and most of it is written by me. I needed a brake. 😀

[ehuelsmann]

Yes. I have. Don't feel pressured. I know how it is; we're using the project in LedgerSMB (https://ledgersmb.org) which is no small effort either (we've been modernizing the code base for more than 15 years now and still not done).

[ThePilgrim]

I'm still uploading to CPAN, have to throttle uploads or I get a slap on the wrist but there's sufficient up there to test with US and British English Look for Locale-CLDR-v0.34.2-TRIAL1 and then *-v0.34.2-TRIAL1for the language packs.
Can you let me know if it works 😀
Upload is fully complete

[ehuelsmann]

Can you let me know if it works 😀
Upload is fully complete

In a docker image where this is currently broken:

docker exec -ti --user root <container name> bash
# cpanm --reinstall --notest https://cpan.metacpan.org/authors/id/J/JG/JGNI/Locale-CLDR-v0.34.2-TRIAL1.tar.gz
# cpanm --reinstall --notest https://cpan.metacpan.org/authors/id/S/ST/STRANGE/Locale-CLDR-Locales-En-v0.34.1.tar.gz

And restarting the docker container.

🎉 yes! It works again now! No workarounds necessary anymore to restore the value of $Math::BigFloat::downgrade.

[ehuelsmann]

Thank you for the quick response!

[ThePilgrim]

I'm getting a none development version generated, once that's done I'll upload it to CPAN. With any luck it will be uploaded by the end of today