On 12/9/2003 10:48 PM, Randy W. Sims wrote:

> Let's say it's 
> named CPAN-META-Specification-1.1.tar.gz. When we link to it, what do we 
> link to: a) the package, 
> L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/CPAN-META-Specifiction/>, or b) the 
> pod/html inside the package, 
> L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/CPAN-META-Specifiction/Specification.pod>.
> 

Alright, that was a stupid question. I was temporarily overwhelmed by 
the coolness of these features in search.cpan.org that I hadn't run into 
before. The link should be to (a), and the user can decide from that 
page to either download the package or browse online.

After rereading the spec there are still a few open issues if anyone 
wants to comment on them.

1) There is overlap between the 'requires_os' and 'excludes_os' fields, 
which seems reasonable to me, but I point it out because some might object.

2) There is overlap between the (currently undocumented) 'provides' and 
the 'no_index' fields. I've reread the arguments on this, and while I 
agree with Ken that ideally we should specify what is provided rather 
than what is not, I feel this is one of those cases where the practical 
and the ideal don't sync. (This is kinda like the situation in Ruby, 
where methods are public unless specified; It seems bass ackwards at 
first until you look at how classes are generally written in practice.) 
I vote to document but deprecate the 'provides' field in favor of 
'no_index'.

3) There is my sugested alternative under 'recommends' that I later 
discovered is a duplication of something already proposed by Ken and 
Autrijus here: 
<http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?thread_id=1676522&forum_id=10905>

4) There may be overlap between the 'dynamic_config' and 'configure' 
fields; I'm not sure I completely understand the 'dynamic_config' field.

5) Maybe one more field should be added:

=head2 auto_regenerate

Example:

   auto_regenerate: false

(Spec 1.1) [optional] Some tools (Module::Build, ExtUtils::MakeMaker)
automaticaly generate a F<META.yml> file. If you customize this file,
you should use this field to indicate to tools that follow the
specification that they should not overwrite your customizations. The
value of this field is assumed to be 'true' if not present.


6) The writing I've done in this spec sucks; Ken, please fix it! ;)

Regards,
 > Randy.
 >
 > PS: The current draft update proposal is at
 > <http://www.thepierianspring.org/META-spec.html>.
 >

The pod is at <http://www.thepierianspring.org/META-spec.pod>