Re: Plugins

Eric Wilhelm wrote:
> Note that we can't use a more typical "plugin configures itself" 
> approach (e.g. call the plugin's init() method after loading) because 
> M::B needs to run on installation targets where a dev plugin might not 
> be available and in other cases we need to have enough info to 
> automatically declare dependencies or perhaps even handle bundling.  
> But the plugins probably need to still declare something about what 
> they provide so the loader can double-check against what is in 
> Build.PL.

Sounds like you need something like a metafile for each plugin (a mini 
manifest) which M::B can use to resolve which plugin is needed at that 
point.  Would those meta files be included in the M::B bundle or be 
available at a well-known location (e.g. CPAN)?  The former requires a 
lot more cooperation if multiple authors are generating plugins.  The 
latter requires net access during the install (which probably should not 
be considered to be an absolute blocker in this day and age).

We do something like this at $WORK so that the config system can resolve 
which library to load.  It only needs to be enough to get to the point 
of knowing what package to load, then allow the plugin itself to 
register options, etc, and continue from there.  So by having these two 
stages, you can go back to "plugin configures itself" after M::B decides 
whether to load it at all...

John