* Leon Brocard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) [18 Aug 2003 20:43]:
[...]
> I'm not sure about how you mean a "good" Changes. For a start, people
> call them different things (Changes, CHANGES, ChangeLog etc.), and
> format them differently.
Strictly speaking, the F<ChangeLog> is a log of changes,
usually extracted straight from version control software
(e.g. C<< svn log > ChangeLog >>).
The F<Changes> file is more a user-oriented description of
the net effect of the individual changes. It should mention
incompatibilities, behavioural changes, new features,
deprecations and such. The L<HTML::Mason> and
L<WWW::Mechanize> distributions have excellent examples of
F<Changes> files.
The thing is, we can't automatically check this sort of
thing. And if we start insisting on a standard format for
Changes files we'll more likely stop getting them. A
standard template and some good examples may go a long way,
but machine readable? Unlikely.
> What is a good README? To be honest, now that we have web interfaces
> to docs on search.cpan.org I don't think that READMEs are terribly
> important.
I'm inclined to agree. Mine are fairly basic these days, listing the
abstract, a pointer to the docs and install instructions, and the
changes from the previous release.
For example:
http://search.cpan.org/src/SPOON/DateTime-Format-Builder-0.77/README
[...]
> > 4) Test suite analyser. How good is the test suite? Use perhaps
> > Devel::Cover to determine how much of the code is covered by
> > the distribution's test suite.
> Sure, convince CPAN Testers to do this ;-)
I've been playing with Devel::Cover and think this is a good
idea. But damned if I know how to report the Devel::Cover
output in a useful way in an email.
> > 5) Signature checker.
> Sure.
Plug Test::Signature and Module::Install here? =)
> > 6) Prerequisite checker.
> What would you check, exactly?
Ostensibly smokers already do this (with my interpretation at least).
>From the look of it, they set up fairly empty perl dists and then have
the program add module paths to @INC for any module listed as a prereq.
> > 7) Version checker.
> What would you check, exactly?
Could check that new releases aren't going backwards, or that version
numbers are well formed CPAN floats?
> > Anything else? Does such a module/script already exist?
> Module::CPANTS::Generator contains a number of metric finding
> functions.
> It's great that somebody else thinks that metrics is a good idea. I
> thought it was just Schwern, Thomas and I! ;-)
cpanratings, kwalitee, metrics, trust matrices, ...
I get the feeling it's all beginning to mesh.
cheers,
--
Iain.
