After that I decided to dig into documenting, testing and cleanup up the code wholesale. The first step was to package up the basic Perl testing tools: http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=831197&group_id=17203&atid=414256 http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=831209&group_id=17203&atid=414256
And then pick a basic module and test it. Fink::Config seemed a good place to start. http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=831614&group_id=17203&atid=317203
And now that I've tested it and know how it works, I can document it and cleanup some of the messiest bits. http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=832063&group_id=17203&atid=317203
Awesome!
I'd like to keep going, but there's been no motion on any of the above. So... are you folks interested in testing and documenting Fink::*? Would you like me to continue?
Most definitely. I'll look into your changes tonight and work on merging them. I'm sorry we didn't get to it sooner but everyone's been deep in "getting our heads above water" in the 10.2-gcc3.3 upgrade and 10.3 upgrade (despite the fact that testing things might have made that easier ;)
On a related note: how important is backwards compatibility? Some of the
Fink::* function interfaces are a bit wonky and could do with some fixing.
For example, the tendency for classes to export functions. Lots of exported global variables where class methods should be used. Exported global variables not being distinguished from local variables with $Uppercase.
Inconsistent method names (new_with_* vs new_from_*). All basic stuff.
There's very little external code that uses such things; as long as fink itself is internally consistent, and we fix the stuff in the "scripts" and "fix-fink" modules accordingly, we should be pretty safe.
I don't know if they use any of our bits directly, but we'd best notify the fink commander people of the changes as well, if we're going to break the API.
I agree it's very messy, and I've wanted to rewrite it for some time, but making things pretty is lower priority than most of the other things we've been busy with for the past 6 months. Only recently, in preparation for all of our tree changes, has the codebase moved in any significant way.
Are you worried someone other than fink is using this code and do you care?
Can I go ahead and supply patches that will improve and change the module interface?
I'm for it. If you do have such patches, make it clear when you submit them and I'll put them on a branch so we can test and notify people that it's changing.
-- Benjamin Reed a.k.a. Ranger Rick -- http://ranger.befunk.com/ gpg: 6401 D02A A35F 55E9 D7DD 71C5 52EF A366 D3F6 65FE "You CAN'T clean the toilet, Neil, it'll lose all it's character!" -- Vyvyan
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