Hello,
In the hopes of helping the CPAN discussion move forward, in the
direction of tangible work, I have made a wiki page with a proposal:
http://wiki.github.com/perl6/misc/cpan-and-package-format
Please read the "Basics" section, which is quite short. The main point
of this section is to divide the issue into three parts:
1) A package format.
2) A low-level install tool, analogous to rpm or dpkg, that converts the
package (2) into a local package format (rpm, deb, ebuild).
3) A high-level install tool, analogous to yum or apt, that uses the
CPAN network and resolves dependencies.
I have used the same numeric labels on the wiki. Tim N. is most
interested in (2) and Mark O. is most interested in (3).
I propose that we work on (1) and (2) first and do (3) later. (3) is
quite independent of (1) and (2). Mark might want to check that the
package format includes enough meta-data to not conflict with is ideas.
If we can "mostly" agree on the package (1), we can move to (2). I think
we can make quick progress with (2):
2.1 Start with a easy&ugly script using the alien and zip commands. Get
the basic functionality down.
2.2 Gradually port Perl 5 modules (e.g. Software::Packager) and rewrite
the script to remove dependency on shell commands.
Think of it as a boot-strapping method.
What do you think?
Daniel.
