Re: [Module::Build] PROPOSAL: M::B should install HTML documentation

[Steve P. <sp...@qu...>]

On Thursday, October 16, 2003, at 12:06  am, Randy W. Sims wrote:

> On 10/15/2003 6:23 PM, Michael G Schwern wrote:
>> On Wed, Oct 15, 2003 at 10:39:12AM -0500, Chris Dolan wrote:
>>> On Wednesday, October 15, 2003, at 06:12  AM, <kev...@ub...> 
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> I would love to see M::B support building HTML documentation.
>>>
>>>
>>> I have built a module to do exactly that.  It is not yet published 
>>> to CPAN, but here's the documentation.  The main work left to do is 
>>> to tweak some of the defaults and to get a Pod::Html regression bug 
>>> fixed (doesn't handle nested =item tags right, grr...)
>> A few things to note:
>> 5.8.1 finally included Config options for HTML installation 
>> directories.
>> So look for $Config{install*html*dir} (installhtml1dir, 
>> installhtml3dir,
>> installsitehtml1dir, etc...) and if they're set, Module::Build should
>> install HTML docs by default.
>
> IIRC, some of those have been around longer but where unused; I don't 
> think anyone ever agreed on where html docs should be installed.
>
>> I would avoid passing Pod::Html specific flags into Module::Build.  
>> Have
>> a plan ready to map them in case Pod::Html is replaced.  The names of
>> the Pod::Html arguments are fairly generic, so its sort of moot.  
>> Just keep your upgrade path open in case one of the future POD->HTML 
>> modules on CPAN matures.
>
> ActiveState distributions have their own means of generating html from 
> pod (the ActivePerl::DocTools module), if that module is present you 
> probably should use it or atleast ask the user.

I'd argue that it's up to ActiveState to override M::B's behaviour in 
this case.  But I've no knowledge of how ActivePerl::DocTools works (I 
can't find it on CPAN), so I don't know how feasible that is.


> There is another issue here in that the list of actions is growing 
> quite large, and M::B is (IMHO) turning into a large monolithic > module.

This too belongs in another thread :).

In context of HTML docs, I think it makes sense to support it 
(especially if it is supported in perl-5.8.1), and I don't think it 
would be the straw that broke the camel's back.

-Steve