I've created a new Perl script that I'd like to upload to CPAN. The project
is also maintained in SourceForge (http://veto.sourceforge.net). It is an
application that automates test management (creating tests scripts, managing
exemptions, updating a Makefile, etc.).
I have the following questions:
- I can't find a category that quite matches the program. There's no
category associated with testing; the functionality is related with version
control (e.g. CVS) and with build tools (e.g. cons) but doesn't really fall
under any of these. Speaking of 'cons', it isn't listed in the scripts
list...
- The name of the script is 'Veto'. AFAIK it isn't taken, but I thought it
is best to make sure. Any problem with it?
- The script has associated tests - a *lot* of associated tests. As things
stand these it isn't possible to upload tests together with a script. It is
possible to associate tests with a module...
- Speaking of modules, if I ever factor out parts of the script into
module(s) I'd be using Test::Veto etc. I guess that's more a question for
[EMAIL PROTECTED] Should I bother them about a module that doesn't exist and
may not exist for a while?
- Final observation: CPAN is much more geared towards handling modules than
scripts. I can see the point in encouraging reusable modules, but there's
also a lot of good in ready-to-use applications. Having the script section
in CPAN is a good start, but perhaps the best strategy would be to make
scripts more module-like, and make the most use of the existing module
management facilities CPAN already provides.
Thinking about it, it seems as though scripts can be viewed as modules with
a different naming convention (no '.pm') and that are installed to a
different directory (to /usr/local/bin or /usr/bin or maybe /usr/bin/perl5 -
or whatever). Other than that, they can have tests, they can depend on other
modules (or scripts), and seem a natural candidate for creating bundles.
So it seems that with some tweaking to the CPAN package it should be
possible to download and install scripts in the exact same way as modules.
Thoughts?
Thanks,
Oren Ben-Kiki
