>>>>> On Thu, 23 May 2002 09:40:03 +0100 (BST), Edward Avis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> said:
> On Thu, 23 May 2002, Ken Williams wrote:
>>> I'm not quite sure I get this one. What's writing the YAML?
>>
>> It would be written by YAML as part of the 'make dist' ('Build dist',
>> actually), from options given in the Build.PL file.
Not the Makefile.PL?
> So why not cut out the middleman and just use the Build.PL?
Because CPAN needs a canonical format that everybody can work with.
And with everybody I also mean people working with other tools than
perl.
> Oh I remember, you want something which can be read quickly and without
> needing an eval().
> But - if the Build.PL is there as human-readable source code, then the
> argument about the generated metadata file being human-readable goes
> away. The generated file (YAML or whatever) would be read only by
> machine, a human would surely go straight to the Build.PL. Or have I
> got this the wrong way round?
Depends on which human you mean. The author of the XXX.PL file will
prefer to edit hist XXX.PL file. The user of module Foo will prefer to
read either the canonical format or the output of some tool which in
turn will read the canonical format. The author might prefer to not
even distribute his XXX.PL some day.
Storable as canonical format is absolutely no option because it has
had too many perl-version-specific bugs in the past and because it is
not available to other tools.
--
andreas
