>>>>They add some value to me (show that at least something works). >>> >>>Either they're valuable enough that you install their prerequisites or >>>they're not. > > > But how am I supposed to find this out? I dont even know whether the > required modules are used for the tests only, without digging through the > source...
see Test::Plan (yes, yet another module :) as I've said here before, I point to that module not necessarily as an endorsement but as a pointer to a theory - I'm (now) very much convinced that it's up to the individual tests to know what their requirements and/or prerequisites are and skip over the test if those requirements are not met. so, if a module requires Test::Deep, Test::Foo, and Test::Beer, the test file ought to do something like plan tests => 5, need qw(Test::Deep Test::Foo Test::Beer); or, for the majority of folks, the skip_all equivalent. this would be in contrast to a largish PREREQ_PM that make _build-time_ prerequisites of modules that were only required for _test-time_ interactions. it also has the effect of being much more granular in that it's probably not _every_ test file that uses Test::Beer, so when you choose not to install Test::Beer (and it's hidden Test::Bar prerequisite) you'll probably still be able to run _some_ tests... fwiw --Geoff
