Re: [Module::Build] Making 0.28 a reality

[Stephen A. <spa...@gm...>]

> > If people thought this was a good idea (and the solution to some of the=
se
> > problems), I would be happy to write it.
...
> That would be awesome.
...
>   -Ken

Hi,

Ken said this would be useful, so I am ready to submit a patch.

I have modified a version of Module::Build::Base from Module-Build-0.2611
to add YAML support sufficient to do everything that Module::Build needs.

In essence, I have replaced write_minimal_metadata() with write_metadata().
This new write_metadata() method does everything that is needed to
write META.yml
but it does it without YAML.pm.  Thus, we could remove all dependency on YA=
ML.pm
completely. (Or, we merely use the internal routine if the external YAML.pm=
 does
not exist.)

 1. How exactly should I submit this? (I am not experienced with
submitting patches
     in the "right form".)  Should I check out from anonymous CVS? Do some =
diff
     command?  Can someone tell me the exact sequence of commands to get th=
e
     right style of diff after I check out from CVS? Or do I just send
in my version
     of Module::Build::Base?
 2. I could also make the modification to the CVS HEAD. Do you want me
to do that?
 3. Should we get rid of any dependence upon YAML.pm altogether?
     We could use the internal routine exclusively.  Or should we use
YAML.pm if it
     exists and use the internal routine if it does not exist?

Please let me know.

Stephen

On 2/26/06, Ken Williams <ke...@ma...> wrote:
>
> On Feb 19, 2006, at 3:51 PM, Stephen Adkins wrote:
>
> > It has already been stated that the subset of the YAML
> > specification actually
> > needed by Module::Build is quite limited.
> >
> > Why not write a module (Module::Build::YAML) which is included in
> > the M::B
> > distribution which supplies all of the YAML functionality required
> > by M::B.
> > Then there would never again be a system which had M::B but did not
> > have
> > enough YAML support in order to support its functions?
>
> Yes, I've been coming to the same conclusion.  I think it's probably
> the right way to go in this situation - we only write YAML, never
> read it, and the subset of things we need to know how to write is
> pretty simple.
>
> Witness the existing _yaml_quote_string() method, which is darn close
> to doing everything we need for YAML-writing (though I'm not quite
> sure it's totally correct).
>
> > If people thought this was a good idea (and the solution to some of
> > these
> > problems), I would be happy to write it. (But it's not so hard, and
> > I imagine
> > others could write it too and not have to wait for me.)
>
> That would be awesome.
>
> I think the set of types we need to write in YAML are:
>
>   * Strings
>   * Booleans
>   * Arrays whose entries are members of this set
>   * Hashes whose entries are members of this set
>
> and no reference loops.  So to do arrays, for example, you can just
> recurse on the elements of the array.
>
>   -Ken
>
>