The future of MARC::Lint (my thoughts, and an invitation for comments). MARC::Lint has now been moved out of the MARC::Record distibution, in anticipation of its release as a standalone package distribution. The MARC::Doc::Tutorial needs to be updated to reflect the change.
I plan on updating MARC::Lint in the next few months and am seeking advice on how to proceed. The first version will differ little from the version previously bundled with MARC::Record. I will be adding fields 001-008 to the DATA section (thus allowing for check_xxx methods for those fields). The MARC documentation includes obsolete values for indicators in several fields (050, 051, 060, 061, 070, 222, 260, 534, 550, 775). These obsolete indicator values are currently being added as valid values during construction of the DATA section by the etc-specs.pl script that cleans up the ecbdist.html file. (See the "next if /OBSOLETE/" statement (after the "next unless $in_tag"). For later versions of MARC::Lint, I plan on adding in the check_xxx methods from MARC::Lintadditions. I still need to write tests for each of these, to make sure the transfer from Lintadditions to Lint doesn't break anything. As part of the process of integrating the modules, I created the MARC::Lint::CodeData module, where MARC code list data for languages, countries, and geographic areas is stored. One of my concerns, as has been mentioned in the past, is whether adding these specific checks to the main MARC::Lint module might pose problems for those using the module. Perhaps a method could be added to allow individual checks to be turned on and off easily, such as through a filter function? Otherwise, storing additional methods in a separate module (or collection of modules) might be a solution. This would allow various flavors of MARC::Lint, including MARC21 bibliographic (which the original module covers), authority, UNIMARC, etc. For those to work, though, the DATA section of the current module would probably need to be moved to a separate file. I've not forgotten about Ian Hamilton's suggested modifications. First, though I'd like to get Lintadditions methods integrated, with tests for each. Later, following Ian's lead, I hope to rewrite my MARC::Errorchecks module's subroutines to fit within the MARC::Lint framework. If you are using MARC::Lint, or one of my related modules, MARC::Lintadditions or MARC::Errorchecks, please let me know of any thoughts you may have. Thank you, Bryan Baldus Cataloger, Quality Books Inc. [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://home.inwave.com/eija/
