Over on use.perl.org I opined a bit about version numbers and their
unsuitability for indicating stability.
http://use.perl.org/~schwern/journal/35127
What I would like is a way to explicitly indicate bug and API stability, as
well as compatibility, in META.yml. For example...
version: 2.01
api_version: 2.0
api_compatibility: 1.4
stability: high
release_type: bugfix
What this would communicate is that this is version 2.01, a bugfix release. It
implements the same API as version 2.0. It's backwards compatible to version
1.4. The author considers it very stable.
api_version defaults to version. Since most folks don't religiously track
when they add new things I believe this will be the normal state of affairs.
stability defaults to high
release_type and api_compatibility default to unspecified.
This would allow automated installers to warn the user when they're about to
upgrade to an unstable version or an incompatible release or a major upgrade.
It allows authors to have explicit sliding windows of backwards compatibility.
It also gives META.yml something like the D part of DSLIP so maybe we can put
a stake into the CPAN Registered Modules List.
--
If at first you don't succeed--you fail.
-- "Portal" demo
