Re: Need suggestions for terminology

On Dec 2, 2011, at 7:10 PM, Michael G Schwern wrote:

>> Distribution:  A Distribution is an abstract concept that defines
>> relationships between packages.  The minimal concrete implementation
>> of a Distribution would be just a META.json (or equivalent) file.
>> Distributions also have names and versions like Foo-Bar-1.2
> 
> This is what I term a "release".
> 
> A "distribution" is the whole Foo-Bar series of releases.  It has a name, a
> list of releases, and not much else.  All the real data is associated with a
> distribution's releases.  See BackPAN::Index::Dist.
> 
> A "release" is a specific version of a distribution.  It has a CPAN id, date
> of release, what distribution it's for, a filename, version, what files are in
> it, etc... basically everything that's in the meta file is associated with a
> release.  See BackPAN::Index::Release.

Yes, that's an important distinction -- thanks for pointing it out.  I'll try and incorporate that into my lexicon.

>> Repository: A repository is a general term for any CPAN-like pile of
>> files.  This includes CPAN mirrors, as well as any DarkPAN or mini-cpans.
>> A repository has a URL that identifies the entry point.  For example:
>> http://cpan.perl.org
> 
> You might want to record the type of repository, even if there's
> only "CPAN" for now.  It might be worth differentiating "CPAN" from "BackPAN".
> The structure is the same, but one has some CPAN releases and the later as
> has all CPAN releases.
> 
> For example, if you wanted to pull from Debian or Fedora sources.

Good point.  CPAN, BackPAN, and DarkPAN are all specific types of "repositories".  So I need a name for that type.  I guess "PAN" could be an option.

-Jeff