Let's say it's named CPAN-META-Specification-1.1.tar.gz. When we link to it, what do we link to: a) the package, L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/CPAN-META-Specifiction/>, or b) the pod/html inside the package, L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/CPAN-META-Specifiction/Specification.pod>.
Alright, that was a stupid question. I was temporarily overwhelmed by the coolness of these features in search.cpan.org that I hadn't run into before. The link should be to (a), and the user can decide from that page to either download the package or browse online.
After rereading the spec there are still a few open issues if anyone wants to comment on them.
1) There is overlap between the 'requires_os' and 'excludes_os' fields, which seems reasonable to me, but I point it out because some might object.
2) There is overlap between the (currently undocumented) 'provides' and the 'no_index' fields. I've reread the arguments on this, and while I agree with Ken that ideally we should specify what is provided rather than what is not, I feel this is one of those cases where the practical and the ideal don't sync. (This is kinda like the situation in Ruby, where methods are public unless specified; It seems bass ackwards at first until you look at how classes are generally written in practice.) I vote to document but deprecate the 'provides' field in favor of 'no_index'.
3) There is my sugested alternative under 'recommends' that I later discovered is a duplication of something already proposed by Ken and Autrijus here: <http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?thread_id=1676522&forum_id=10905>
4) There may be overlap between the 'dynamic_config' and 'configure' fields; I'm not sure I completely understand the 'dynamic_config' field.
5) Maybe one more field should be added:
=head2 auto_regenerate
Example:
auto_regenerate: false
(Spec 1.1) [optional] Some tools (Module::Build, ExtUtils::MakeMaker) automaticaly generate a F<META.yml> file. If you customize this file, you should use this field to indicate to tools that follow the specification that they should not overwrite your customizations. The value of this field is assumed to be 'true' if not present.
6) The writing I've done in this spec sucks; Ken, please fix it! ;)
Regards, > Randy. > > PS: The current draft update proposal is at > <http://www.thepierianspring.org/META-spec.html>. >
The pod is at <http://www.thepierianspring.org/META-spec.pod>
